When tracking your period lets companies track you
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Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#2Is there a transcript? Not a fan of audio or video forms of information, far easier to read.
However, no surprise. Literally every app anymore ought to be considered from the perspective of, "What can this app possibly get from my phone, by technical standards, regardless of what I think of that?" It's got accelerometer data and gyro data? It's doing something nasty with it. It's got location data? Oh, baby, hope it's precise! Contact list data? Call data? Wifi network data? Bluetooth data? Yeah, all of that going upstream for those juicy revenue streams on the backend.
I mean, RobinHood is literally doing nothing but selling order streams to high frequency trading companies to front-run the transactions people are making "for free."
There is no such thing as an app anymore that works in your interest, as a guiding first order principle.
> Their rebuttal to all this surveillance, of the commodification of our behaviors as users is simple: personal empowerment and regulation.
Oh. Well then. Maybe they'd be so kind as to offer a pony to go with "personal empowerment," and perhaps some recommendations or written regulation that might go with the second?
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#3I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource.
There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others.
However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home.
Recently, this was a problem on the Wyze Watch which includes among other things a period tracker. I ended up replacing it by a Garmin eSports Watch: while the Wyze is a wonderful device (oh boy do I miss the puse oxymeter for O2 saturation...), it requires an app on the phone: if you uninstall it, the Wyze will work for a while... until it accumulates too much data.
After that, it presents various symptoms (ex: unable to pair) that end up with the touchscreen not working after a few month.
The Garmin can apparently be run autonomously and doesn't seem to have this problem (so far!) that seems to be cause by a lack of rollover/delete.
If it works as it should, with no app, I will replace it after a few months by a more advanced model like the Forerunner 945 that includes a pulse oximeter.
If it can't delete data on its own (without any phone pairing), I will look for another device that can work without a phone.
In any case, I will not let my health-related data be exfiltrated, even for something as innocent as a bluetooth toothbrush.
This article seems to support my almost luddite approach!
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#4I always appreciate a discussion about surveillance capitalism as it's one of the roots of many, many world problems in today's world.
This is such a disgusting, predatory invasion of privacy and it's as pervasive as portrayed in the podcast [1]. These companies should be hit with huge financial penalties and the full force of GDPR should be dropped on them, but I'm sure by now, the largest companies have found loopholes to share personal information that can be used to market to individuals without it being considered personally identifiable...
One thing absent from the podcast however was an alternative. My partner on finding out about the data sale going on with period trackers (and having their mind poisoned with the concept of open source by me!) found Drip [2] which is an open source period tracker that's accurate, not exploitative, and not pink.
[1] https://www.privacyinternational.org/long-read/3196/no-bodys...
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#5I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource. There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others. However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home. Recently, t…
Between this, and Peloton and eBay doing portscans of your network,
anyone who made fun of people for tech paranoia should be feeling pretty ashamed of themselves right about now for what we've allowed to become commonplace,
while simultaneously acknowledging it's only enabled by society ghosting its responsibility to learn tech.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#6Is there a transcript? Not a fan of audio or video forms of information, far easier to read. However, no surprise. Literally every app anymore ought to be considered from the perspective of, "What can this app possibly get from my phone, by technical standards, regardless of what I think of that?" It's got accelerometer data and gyro data? It's doing something nasty with it. It's got location data? Oh, baby, hope it'…
The icon on the far right on the same line as the play button shows the transcript.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#7Hot take: all these body tracking apps do almost nothing to actually help you be healthy or improve your life, and the only reason that people feel a need to use them is because advertising has convinced them that it is “part of a healthy diet”.
Whether or not they invade your privacy, they reduce your idea of your health to a set of numbers that are divorced from the actual reality of your life and your overall wellbeing. Just abstain!
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#8I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource. There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others. However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home. Recently, t…
Between this, and Peloton and eBay doing portscans of your network, anyone who made fun of people for tech paranoia should be feeling pretty ashamed of themselves right about now for what we've allowed to become commonplace, while simultaneously acknowledging it's only enabled by society ghosting its responsibility to learn tech.
I can't remember exactly which smart device it was, but I think it was my Wyze Watch that asked for wayyyyyy too much information during setup.
Like, dear watch, how's my sex, birthday, size and weight gonna help you do your job?
I got you to 1) show the time 2) have alarms that I can set without using the phone, like in bed 3) monitor my sleep 4) check my heartrate and saturation when I exercise.
There's literally 0 reason to have my birthday, so I went by january 1st :)
But it shouldn't even have been asked in the 1st place.
> what we've allowed to become commonplace
We should not allow it anymore. A smart device that insist on having an app on a phone to be usable won't get my $$$.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#9Is there a transcript? Not a fan of audio or video forms of information, far easier to read. However, no surprise. Literally every app anymore ought to be considered from the perspective of, "What can this app possibly get from my phone, by technical standards, regardless of what I think of that?" It's got accelerometer data and gyro data? It's doing something nasty with it. It's got location data? Oh, baby, hope it'…
The icon on the far right on the same line as the play button shows the transcript.
Greatly appreciated, thanks!
> E TOGNI: Since I've started using Flo, every time my period is late, even just by one day, I receive ads on Facebook, Google and YouTube about pregnancy tests all the time. And then if I'm late for more than one day, I receive other ads about family planning, how to have a healthy baby. And, you know, a lot of products are just advertised to me constantly. I'm bombarded with this. And this happens every month for the past six years (laughter).
AGGGH. That's not "funny, cute, lulz." That's "Remove from phone and never look back!"
I'm glad to see surveillance capitalism in the general discussion, but, man, it's depressing just how much it's taken over literally everything in the past decade.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#10I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource. There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others. However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home. Recently, t…
For Android users, there's the open source app Gadgetbridge. It works with some watches/bands and headphones:
- https://f-droid.org/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetb...