In a newly published open-access book chapter, GenTIC researcher Luana Mathias Souto critically examines how the European data protection framework understands vulnerability, focusing on the rapidly expanding Femtech sector and its processing of intimate health and reproductive data.

The study shows that current regulatory frameworks, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), fall short in protecting women from specific digital risks. Rather than treating women merely as passive subjects of legal protection, Luana Mathias Souto advocates for their active participation in shaping the rules, technologies, and governance structures that control their personal data. The researcher proposes a series of gender-sensitive recommendations, including:

  • Recognizing gendered vulnerability in data protection law and strengthening safeguards for data related to gender, sex, and reproductive health.
  • Ensuring women’s involvement in the design, development, and regulation of Femtech technologies through participatory governance mechanisms.
  • Embedding intersectionality into both legal and technological frameworks, considering how gender interacts with race, class, sexuality, disability, and transgender experiences.
  • Strengthening regulatory oversight to tackle issues such as non-consensual data sharing, algorithmic bias, and discriminatory profiling.
  • Promoting digital literacy, transparency, and user-friendly consent mechanisms to empower women to make informed decisions about their personal data.

This research is part of the THELMA project, funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme of the European Commission and led by Luana Mathias Souto at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Find it in open access in the book Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law: Pathways towards Fairness, edited by Camilla Crea and Marta Infantino.

Reference:

Mathias Souto, L. [Luana]. (2025). Women’s Digital Vulnerability in the Femtech Context: Building Up Gender-Sensitive Remedies on Data Protection. In C. Crea & M. Infantino (Eds), Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law (pp. 403–415). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-19720-7_21 – OPEN ACCESS – Link to full text