Clue Alternative: Period Trackers With No Cloud Storage Required

What Clue Gets Right

Clue is headquartered in Berlin, which means it operates under GDPR. It has no FTC enforcement history and no documented enforcement for direct data-selling violations.

What Independent Investigations Found

The privacy picture is more complex than the brand positioning suggests. The Norwegian Consumer Council’s January 2020 “Out of Control” report found that 10 analyzed apps including Clue collectively fed personal information to at least 135 third-party advertising and profiling companies, sharing Android Advertising IDs, IP addresses, device identifiers, and demographic data.

Privacy International conducted a DSAR investigation in December 2020 and found that every interaction with Clue resulted in data stored on servers linked to user ID, device ID, and location precise enough to identify the researcher’s borough. Clue initially failed to provide a complete list of third parties receiving data.

In May 2022, Vice/Motherboard reporters purchased data from data broker Narrative for approximately $100 that identified Android devices with Clue installed. Narrative subsequently removed all pregnancy and menstruation app install data.

Mozilla’s August 2022 Privacy Not Included review gave Clue a warning label. The review cited extensive data collection, opt-out (not opt-in) advertising data sharing, and the fact that the app accepted single-character passwords like “1.”

Clue’s own privacy policy acknowledges sharing “a minimal amount of technical data with advertising networks” including device identifiers and date of birth, on an opt-out basis. The policy also states data may be shared “for legal requirements.” No GDPR enforcement action has been filed against BioWink (Clue’s parent). Unlike Flo, which obtained dual ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications after its FTC settlement, Clue has no documented independent third-party privacy certification.

What Clue Cannot Change

GDPR controls what Clue can do commercially with your data. It does not prevent a court from ordering Clue to produce it. Your Clue account links your email address to your cycle history, symptom logs, and reproductive health information on Clue’s servers. German courts can issue production orders. US courts can make requests via mutual legal assistance treaties. Law enforcement in other jurisdictions has similar mechanisms.

The question of whether that risk is relevant to you depends on your circumstances. For users in US states with abortion restrictions, who are navigating custody disputes, or who are managing health conditions with insurance implications, the architectural question matters more than the company’s commercial practices.

Why On-Device Storage Is Different

On-device trackers like Floriva do not have a server holding your data. When law enforcement requests data from Floriva, there is nothing to hand over. This is not a legal strategy or a policy commitment; it is a technical fact. The data lives in encrypted storage on your phone and nowhere else.

This architectural difference is why some users switch from Clue even though they are satisfied with Clue’s commercial practices. Clue’s privacy is as good as Clue’s promises, plus GDPR enforcement. Floriva’s privacy is as good as your phone’s encryption, regardless of what any company promises.

Comparing the Features

Clue has a more developed feature set than most on-device trackers at this point. Its cycle science is research-backed, the symptom logging is detailed, and the free tier is functional without ads. The free tier limitation is feature depth, not privacy.

Floriva covers the core tracking functions: cycle predictions, symptom logging, and reminders. The prediction algorithm builds accuracy over 2-3 cycles. The trade-off is cloud-synced history and the research-backed health insights that Clue’s larger dataset enables.

Making the Switch From Clue

If you want to export your Clue data before switching, go to Settings and request a data export. Clue provides your cycle history in a readable format. Enter your last few cycle start dates into your new tracker to rebuild the prediction baseline.