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When tracking your period lets companies track you

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Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#41

Post by jacquesm »

anigbrowl wrote: post #20
wheelinsupial wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[1] has an HN discussion from 2012 on “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” [2] is the non-paywalled NYT article being discussed and linked to in the thread. It starts: “Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: ‘If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pr…

I remember that one. Marketing as a profession really seems to attract sociopaths. I'm not sure the people who enable them are much better.

In my book the enablers are worse. Without them the sociopaths wouldn't be able to do much of anything. Bad ideas abound, execution capability is - rightly - rewarded when it works out positively, likewise it should be punished when used in a negative way.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#42

Post by wizzwizz4 »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #14
Syonyk wrote: post #2

Is 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'…

> There is no such thing as an app anymore that works in your interest, as a guiding first order principle. There's Free Software.

If you have Android, there's an app for that: https://www.f-droid.org/.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#43

Post by skummetmaelk »

conor_f wrote: post #4

I 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 looph…

Banning targeted advertising is the only solution.

Confine ads to known spaces you can visit and expect to be advertised to.

You can still find new products, but the economic incentives behind surveillance capitalism are gone.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#44

Post by leppr »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #14
Syonyk wrote: post #2

Is 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'…

> There is no such thing as an app anymore that works in your interest, as a guiding first order principle. There's Free Software.

Android users have F-droid. It has been my first destination for a while when I need an utility app.

Many (relatively) expensive paid apps are also fully pro-user.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#45

Post by busymom0 »

Syonyk wrote: post #2

Is 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'…

> There is no such thing as an app anymore that works in your interest, as a guiding first order principle.

Hey there’s still a few of us left. I am the developer of mood tracker MoodWell, a similar genre apps as this post. Users input a ton of their private data in the app- from their mood and emotions data to what activities they are doing, notes, photos, weather etc. to track their mental health and how it’s affected by different activities, weather etc.

This is very personal data and that’s why my app keeps all this data locally. Only if they use iCloud sync between multiple devices, then it goes to Apple iCloud server. But none of that ever gets sent to me and I have no control or access over their data.

I have similar reputation about privacy for my other apps including my hacker news client app HACK, school timetable app, resume builder website etc. my resume builder website even builds the resume pdf locally in the browser and no data gets sent to any server.

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/moodwell-moody-tracker-diary/i...

https://resumetopdf.com/

https://resumetopdf.com/privacypolicy.html

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#46

Post by smeej »

celsoazevedo wrote: post #10
csdvrx wrote: post #3

I 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... - https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/

I got an Amazfit Bip to use with GadgetBridge just for this reason, to have control over my data.

It's definitely not a very sophisticated device, but it tracks my heart rate and activity and can track my walking routes if I want it to. And the data never leaves my devices.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#47

Post by rogual »

leppr wrote: post #44
seba_dos1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no such thing as an app anymore that works in your interest, as a guiding first order principle. There's Free Software.

Android users have F-droid. It has been my first destination for a while when I need an utility app. Many (relatively) expensive paid apps are also fully pro-user.

I wonder if it would be feasible to have some sort of trademarked "Pro-User" badge, and an organization which vets apps and licenses the trademark to them?

I know such things exist for "cruelty-free" (i.e. no animal testing) -- why not for "MBA tech bullshit free?"

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#48

Post by bregma »

MandieD wrote: post #15

Validates my decision to self-host and donate to Baby Buddy: https://github.com/babybuddy/babybuddy I figured all those “free” (and possibly even the paid) baby apps were likely doing all sorts of shady things with that data. One thing for me to use a period/fertility tracker for myself - quite another to throw my child’s data up to god knows who for god knows what ends long before he could possibly consent. If you d…

We raised three children without tracking data on their metabolic processes. We nursed them when they were hungry, changed them when they were moist or stinky, and comforted them when they were upset. The only thing we really measured is how little sleep we got. They have all grown into fine adults.

I have observed that one of the biggest causes of bad relationships between parents and their children -- and subsequent life problems for the children -- is when parents try to assert too much control. It's a fine line between responsibility and control, and the quality and quantity of information you need for the former before it becomes more of the latter.

The question is: do you need what the app gives you to fulfill your responsibilities, or do you just want it to satisfy your urges?

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#49

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

MandieD wrote: post #15

Validates my decision to self-host and donate to Baby Buddy: https://github.com/babybuddy/babybuddy I figured all those “free” (and possibly even the paid) baby apps were likely doing all sorts of shady things with that data. One thing for me to use a period/fertility tracker for myself - quite another to throw my child’s data up to god knows who for god knows what ends long before he could possibly consent. If you d…

I had a look at the screenshot and frankly, that sounds terrible. I mean, you are already stressed about all your new parental duties. Now you add the stress of the app. This is the opposite of what you need - that is, being relaxed.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#50

Post by technothrasher »

bregma wrote: post #48
MandieD wrote: post #15

Validates my decision to self-host and donate to Baby Buddy: https://github.com/babybuddy/babybuddy I figured all those “free” (and possibly even the paid) baby apps were likely doing all sorts of shady things with that data. One thing for me to use a period/fertility tracker for myself - quite another to throw my child’s data up to god knows who for god knows what ends long before he could possibly consent. If you d…

We raised three children without tracking data on their metabolic processes. We nursed them when they were hungry, changed them when they were moist or stinky, and comforted them when they were upset. The only thing we really measured is how little sleep we got. They have all grown into fine adults. I have observed that one of the biggest causes of bad relationships between parents and their children -- and subsequen…

Bah! Back when I was a young parent, we had to track our baby's processes on stone tablets, that were on top of mountain, scratched with our bare fingers, and still our boy grew up into a fine knob thatcher.

> do you need what the app gives you to fulfill your responsibilities, or do you just want it to satisfy your urges?

There's a third option, which is that while not strictly necessary, certain tools can help make a job easier, so why not take advantage of them? I agree with you about having to be careful about control vs responsibility when raising a kid, but I'm not sure a baby poo tracker is crossing that line.

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