London, Nov. 2, 2023 – Flo Health, the most popular women’s health app globally with 58 million monthly active users, is today announcing that its Anonymous Mode feature has been recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions 2023. The recognition celebrates Flo’s commitment to protecting its users’ privacy and further complements the company's notable achievements in this area, including open-sourcing the technology behind Anonymous Mode with the global femtech ecosystem.
TIME’s annual list of the Best Inventions highlights 200 extraordinary and influential innovations that are changing people’s everyday lives. TIME compiled the list by seeking nominations from TIME's global editors and correspondents and through an online application process, with a focus on emerging areas like AI, green energy, and sustainability. The TIME team evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
Flo Anonymous Mode allows users to use the Flo app without revealing personally identifiable information including name, email, or technical identifiers. With this feature, users can confidently keep track of their menstrual cycles, fertility, and overall reproductive health while maintaining the utmost privacy and data security. Built as a direct response to user concerns following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the feature was built rapidly and rolled out to all users in September 2022. Flo partnered with Cloudflare to integrate an Oblivious HTTP system, App Relay Gateway, to ensure that no single party processing user data for Anonymous Mode accounts has complete information on both who the user is and what they are trying to access.
“In an era where digital privacy often takes a backseat, Flo Health’s Anonymous Mode is a cornerstone of building a better future for female health. Our users have expressed their gratitude for the ability to track their health insights with peace of mind, and we are delighted to be able to fulfill that promise.“ said Roman Bugaev, Chief Technology Officer at Flo Health. “Because of our collaboration with our partner Cloudflare, we have expanded Anonymous Mode’s potential with the addition of post-quantum cryptography and open sourcing the technology. We’re dedicated to empowering women to track their health without concern, while pioneering groundbreaking standards for privacy and security in the global health tech industry.”
The recognition from TIME follows on Flo’s continued iteration of the Anonymous Mode feature. In June 2023, Flo took a significant step by open-sourcing the technology behind its Anonymous Mode feature, sharing a part of its intellectual property (IP) with the global femtech ecosystem. Flo also integrated an even deeper layer of privacy protection by adding post-quantum cryptography into the feature. The post-quantum cryptography further safeguards sensitive health information from potential security risks posed by quantum computers, which is a looming threat on the horizon.
In addition to the recognition from TIME, Flo’s Anonymous Mode feature has won the 2022 IAPP Privacy Innovation Award and has been listed as a finalist in Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Rapid Response category.
To learn more about Anonymous Mode and Flo’s privacy and security practices, visit Flo’s Privacy Portal.
About Flo Health: Flo is the most popular women’s health app globally; it is #1 OB-GYN-recommended app for period and cycle tracking based on a survey among 500 US OB-GYNs. Over 300 million people have downloaded Flo, and 58 million people use it on a monthly basis. With over 120+ medical experts, Flo supports women during their entire reproductive lives and provides curated cycle and ovulation tracking, personalized health insights, expert tips, and a fully closed community for women to share their questions and concerns. Flo prioritizes safety and keeps a sharp focus on being the most trusted digital source for women's health information. Flo health app is available in more than 20 languages on iOS and Android. For more information, please visit https://flo.health.