Euki is a reproductive health app created by international, activist-run, non-profit organisation Women Help Women together with research and development support from Ibis Reproductive Health. Originally launched in 2019, the app is both a period-tracker app and a set of guides and resources giving access to information on abortion, sexuality, miscarriage, contraception, consent, and STIs, and gives links to direct services and advocacy organisations. The app is available in English and Spanish.

Privacy for users is Euki’s biggest priority. The app has several key interaction design and user-centred features that ensure personal safety and security. All decisions were created in collaboration with privacy lawyers and in consultation with cybersecurity experts, in close collaboration with community focus groups. For example, no data is stored remotely or on a third-party server, and all data is anonymised on a user’s device. There are options for the periodic deletion of data, PIN codes to access the app’s data, and failsafe measures should a device fall into the wrong hands. The app demonstrates a notable design theory known as ‘Privacy-by-design', a core set of principles conceived by privacy expert and former Canadian Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian in 1995. Also known as ‘data protection through technology design’, Privacy-by-Design details where a whole system is designed to ensure security and privacy for an individual or organisation, for example, whereby privacy is the default setting, as is the case with Euki, rather than a feature a user opts into. The app also implements customisation as a privacy mechanism, enabling any aspect of the application’s icons (such as a button for abortion resources) or notifications to be renamed, an important feature especially when certain aspects of reproductive health are time sensitive or at risk of scrutiny.

For the whole design process itself, the app was developed following a period of research and focus groups consisting of predominantly marginalised and migrant women, transgender and gender expansive individuals conducted by Ibis Reproductive Health for Women Helping Women and decisions are made with their Community Advisory Board before implementation. This group continue to inform on the app’s development, incorporating feedback from users into the app.

The Euki app has gained worldwide attention following the 3 May 2022 leak of the US Supreme Court’s reported intent to overturn the 1973 Roe vs Wade law, making abortion illegal in 22 US states. Privacy experts such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation feared that many period apps which store and share data will be used to track and apprehend those who seek abortion in states where the procedure is allowed or find ways to seek abortion through more covert methods, such as through the mail. On the 24 June 2022, the Supreme court overturned the constitutional guarantee of abortion access in the United States, leading to nationwide protests and a renewed concern for digital privacy. Euki was recommended as an app that protected digital privacy and reproductive healthcare due to its exemplary design merits by journalists and legal and privacy professionals covering this issue in publications including design magazine WIRED, Nature journal, The Washington Post, The Independent and women’s magazine The Cut among others.

Women Help Women is an international, activist-run, non-profit organisation working on access to abortion. Defining as ‘feminist activists’, they are trained counsellors, medical professionals, and researchers based across four continents who have a strong focus on supporting self-managed abortion, especially in places where abortion is restricted by law, stigma and lack of access. Projects include a global telehealth service that provides information, support and abortion pills to women around the world, and partnerships with local feminist groups around the world to support increased access to abortion pills.

Ibis Reproductive Health are a global non-profit and research organisation that focuses on increasing access to abortion care and contraception and sexual health information. This is their first collaboration, and their first app.