Live data from Hacker News

When tracking your period lets companies track you

npr.org

81–90 of 141 posts

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I agree that "we used to do just fine" isn't a sufficient argument by itself. There are many things that we didn't have when we were kids and even if we turned out fine, they are clearly beneficial (say, meningitis vaccines). But honestly, is there really much value in knowing e.g. exactly how much and how frequently our babies feed? I mean, if you've had a baby you will know that feeding is purely instinctive, they…

> But honestly, is there really much value in knowing e.g. exactly how much and how frequently our babies feed?

For some caregivers and babies, absolutely! Child birth and rearing, like many things, has a _lot_ of edge cases that most people who go through the process never experience or consider. There are cases where tracking closely on different aspects of baby’s habits or development may be crucial to more positive outcomes for the baby.

> And are you sure it's worth spending your scarce energy and thoughts, as a sleep-starved parent, on doing that kind of tracking?

Honestly this is one of the primary reasons Baby Buddy exists. If I as a caregiver have (or want!) to track some specific details about a baby I’d much rather do it on a device I have available to me most of the time (my phone) and without having to worry about paper, pen, manual calculations, seeing those things at night, etc. This is absolutely personal opinion, but you asked! (:

Disclaimer: I am the maintainer of Baby Buddy.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#82

"NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or…

If you’re worried about cookies, you could open the page in a private browsing mode. Cookies will not be saved between browsing sessions regardless of what you agree to.

The cookie is just an implementation detail. Agreeing to the terms of the average cookie wall will let the website in question capture your IP address and browser fingerprint and then sell on that information for combination with other data sources.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#83

"NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or…

You may be interested in http://text.npr.org

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#84

"NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or…

You may be interested in http://text.npr.org

Bless you! This is superb.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up WhatsApp 2-3 years back thinking if people before 2000 could live without it I certainly can live without it. I am thinking of applying that principle to many things of my digital life.

"I make my life more difficult because people in the past had difficult lives"? How far do you apply this model? Passenger airbags in your automobile too?

Imagine comparing WhatsApp to airbags.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#86
post #71
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have a serious question and I’d love a real response. Why are so many parents so judgmental?? It’s really interesting. OP shared a story about what works for their child. Rather than just leave it be, you judge it, conclude that it’s going to be a cause of a bad relationship between parent and child and then turn it around so it makes the parent seem selfish. Has it ever occurred to you that none of really know wha…

[deleted]

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#87
post #48
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…

I'm a little surprised that there's so much negative reaction to this idea. In practice, kids cannot be totally controlled; they're independent individuals, and they're sneaky, and they're fast. It seems natural to me, at least, that the better strategy for a parent is to be available when your kids are truly over their heads, and to try to do the high-level work of steering them and winning them over to the right direction.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#88
post #77
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> certain tools can help make a job easier Sure. If you insist on doing the unnecessary, possibly harmful job there are plenty of consumer grifts you can join that are waiting to relieve you of your money or exploit you for profit in some other way, like tracking and reselling your personal information. There is, after all, a sucker born every minute. Some of them have recently become parents. But that's not a third…

Yet, you keep satisfying your urge to cast judgment on an internet stranger?? What’s the difference? How are you helping?? What utility does angry expert parent bregma provide to this thread or to the other parent’s life??

It really seems like they've been saying to take a deep breath and not pressure yourself into giving away all your data, and people here are self-defensively over-reacting. Saying that you don't _have_ to stress yourself out by being a micro-manager doesn't imply you're evil if you like being a micro-manager.

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#89

"NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or…

You may be interested in http://text.npr.org

that's awesome, I wish more sites offered a slimmed down txt-centric version. if they added a minimal search it'd make it a lot more functional. as is, needed to clip the story number from the orig url to find it there:

https://text.npr.org/1068930998

Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you

#90
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…

Hey pal, I have no idea why everyone is lining up to tell you that you’re wrong. I loved reading your story and it gave me a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings from when my child was little.

Our little people are all different and we all love our little people so we adapt to them the best we can. (My child is almost six, so at this point, ‘she adapts me’.) :)

You seem like a wonderful parent and I really dig your attention to detail. :)

Thanks for sharing Baby Buddy. My child was almost two when it was released. But holy crow, that would have been helpful!! :)

The times they are a-changin’

Post reply on HN