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Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

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Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#21

Post by dangus »

RIMR wrote: post #16
gary_0 wrote: post #5

To help drive home the privacy angle, you might consider open-sourcing it and also making it available on F-Droid. Also, why does it say "in-app purchases"? If this is a simple calendar I don't see why any purchasable extras should be necessary. (While many in the HN crowd lack the requisite equipment to make use of your project, we do have girlfriends, wives, sisters, and daughters who might benefit from a privacy-r…

The in-app purchases are a dealbreaker. Not only is there no reason for it, but it necessitates the integration of Google Play Services. If the goal was to be privacy-centric, it already fails at that for this alone. And if the goal was to profit off of women's need for privacy-centric period tracking, then there is absolutely no reason not to find a proper FOSS alternative that cares about its users more than making…

An in-app purchase is an automatic dealbreaker? Doesn’t that depend on what it actually is?

It could be an in-app purchase for themes or something like that. It can be a “thanks for supporting the app” cosmetic badge, completely optional, just there to buy a coffee for the author. But you’re dealbreaking it before you even see it?

In-app purchase != data collection

Also, regarding FOSS alternatives, you should know that FOSS does not mean “free from payment.” It technically doesn’t even mean “free from data collection.” It just means that the source code is available under a free and open source license. FOSS isn’t necessarily “free as in beer” and the FSF explicitly defines it that way. It’s more important that you’re offered the freedoms of the open source license and ability to get the source code. Whether or not you pay is a separate issue entirely.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#22

Post by warunsl »

russdill wrote: post #17
infodrop157293 wrote: post #11

Other options that are open source include: drip. https://dripapp.org/ Bluemoon https://gitlab.com/ngrob/bluemoon-android https://www.nilsgrob.ch/work/bluemoon Periodical https://arnowelzel.de/en/projects/periodical Log28 https://github.com/wildeyedskies/log28

Sorry to hijack a bit here, but have any good links to open source baby tracking apps that allow sharing between partners? The popular options out there on the app stores are a privacy dumpster fire.

I used this for our newborn recently and was very impressed with how flawlessly the partner sharing worked - https://mangobaby.app It is not open source. But didn't look suspicious like the other apps on the store. The privacy labels on the iOS App Store seemed acceptable too (for us).

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#23

Post by 1oooqooq »

dangus wrote: post #21
RIMR wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The in-app purchases are a dealbreaker. Not only is there no reason for it, but it necessitates the integration of Google Play Services. If the goal was to be privacy-centric, it already fails at that for this alone. And if the goal was to profit off of women's need for privacy-centric period tracking, then there is absolutely no reason not to find a proper FOSS alternative that cares about its users more than making…

An in-app purchase is an automatic dealbreaker? Doesn’t that depend on what it actually is? It could be an in-app purchase for themes or something like that. It can be a “thanks for supporting the app” cosmetic badge, completely optional, just there to buy a coffee for the author. But you’re dealbreaking it before you even see it? In-app purchase != data collection Also, regarding FOSS alternatives, you should know t…

it is the moment google allows you to target who have spend on that app.

but yeah, you already have:

- system apps for play service which run all the time and can access all apps' storage.

- all apps can ask the OS for a list of other installed/recently open apps. whats app request that list every minute.

- etc. not going to list all the crap you can use to target individuals on apple and android. there's plenty.

my point is, in the end. apps with purchase option are the least worse from the official stores. chill.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#25

Post by 1oooqooq »

gowld wrote: post #13
gary_0 wrote: post #5

To help drive home the privacy angle, you might consider open-sourcing it and also making it available on F-Droid. Also, why does it say "in-app purchases"? If this is a simple calendar I don't see why any purchasable extras should be necessary. (While many in the HN crowd lack the requisite equipment to make use of your project, we do have girlfriends, wives, sisters, and daughters who might benefit from a privacy-r…

What's the status of trustworthy reproducible build systems for deploying open source code to apps on Android?

well, zero. just like apple. since there's no convenient way for the user the validate anything they are installing other than "the app store said so"

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#26

Post by sshine »

russdill wrote: post #17
infodrop157293 wrote: post #11

Other options that are open source include: drip. https://dripapp.org/ Bluemoon https://gitlab.com/ngrob/bluemoon-android https://www.nilsgrob.ch/work/bluemoon Periodical https://arnowelzel.de/en/projects/periodical Log28 https://github.com/wildeyedskies/log28

Sorry to hijack a bit here, but have any good links to open source baby tracking apps that allow sharing between partners? The popular options out there on the app stores are a privacy dumpster fire.

I’d recommend FindMy, but it only works for iBabies.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#27

Post by dangus »

1oooqooq wrote: post #23
dangus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An in-app purchase is an automatic dealbreaker? Doesn’t that depend on what it actually is? It could be an in-app purchase for themes or something like that. It can be a “thanks for supporting the app” cosmetic badge, completely optional, just there to buy a coffee for the author. But you’re dealbreaking it before you even see it? In-app purchase != data collection Also, regarding FOSS alternatives, you should know t…

it is the moment google allows you to target who have spend on that app. but yeah, you already have: - system apps for play service which run all the time and can access all apps' storage. - all apps can ask the OS for a list of other installed/recently open apps. whats app request that list every minute. - etc. not going to list all the crap you can use to target individuals on apple and android. there's plenty. my…

Are you responding to the right comment? What you’re saying seems completely unrelated to what I was responding to RIMR about.

If your issue with this app being posted to HN is the mere existence of the app on the Play Store (including all of the store and the OS’ existing flaws), I don’t see how that’s supposed to be a constructive or useful discussion relevant to this app.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#28

Post by nozzlegear »

1oooqooq wrote: post #23
dangus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An in-app purchase is an automatic dealbreaker? Doesn’t that depend on what it actually is? It could be an in-app purchase for themes or something like that. It can be a “thanks for supporting the app” cosmetic badge, completely optional, just there to buy a coffee for the author. But you’re dealbreaking it before you even see it? In-app purchase != data collection Also, regarding FOSS alternatives, you should know t…

it is the moment google allows you to target who have spend on that app. but yeah, you already have: - system apps for play service which run all the time and can access all apps' storage. - all apps can ask the OS for a list of other installed/recently open apps. whats app request that list every minute. - etc. not going to list all the crap you can use to target individuals on apple and android. there's plenty. my…

Don’t tell someone to chill just because they take an opposing viewpoint. It’s disingenuous and attempts to paint them as emotional and irrational.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#29

Post by sshine »

simple10 wrote: post #6

Well done! It's great to see more female developers building apps for women. I agree with other commenters that you'd get a lot of mileage out of open sourcing it and doubling down on the privacy / local storage angle. It would help you get press coverage if you want to grow the user base.

> you'd get a lot of mileage out of open sourcing it

I’m not sure. Maintaining an open source project requires even more time than a closed source project. You can have a community-oriented closed source project, too.

> and doubling down on the privacy / local storage angle

Yeah!

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy friendly and simple app to track my menstruation

#30

Post by distalx »

RIMR wrote: post #16
gary_0 wrote: post #5

To help drive home the privacy angle, you might consider open-sourcing it and also making it available on F-Droid. Also, why does it say "in-app purchases"? If this is a simple calendar I don't see why any purchasable extras should be necessary. (While many in the HN crowd lack the requisite equipment to make use of your project, we do have girlfriends, wives, sisters, and daughters who might benefit from a privacy-r…

The in-app purchases are a dealbreaker. Not only is there no reason for it, but it necessitates the integration of Google Play Services. If the goal was to be privacy-centric, it already fails at that for this alone. And if the goal was to profit off of women's need for privacy-centric period tracking, then there is absolutely no reason not to find a proper FOSS alternative that cares about its users more than making…

It's unfair to expect someone to work for free. In-app purchases are a common and reasonable way for programmers to sustain themselves while providing a valuable service to users. After all, programmers, like everyone else, need to make a living.
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