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Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety

cam.ac.uk

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Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety

#15
post #4
post #3

[flagged]

Can you explain?

Historically, "safety" referred to protection from physical harm. It has now expanded into psychological, emotional, economical realms. This had the (very much intended) effect of redefining "unsafe" from imminent and persistent threat to anything that makes me uncomfortable.

Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety

#16
post #3

[flagged]

Maybe you are completely unaware, but many US states have criminalized abortion. Pregnancies and abortions are detectable from menstrual data.

With this in mind, why do the users trust these companies in supplying that data? I’m asking this is earnest.

Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety

#17

I have been thinking about building a privacy-first tracking app for years now.

The problem is that stuff like privacy and open source don't attract the vast sums of venture capital that ad-selling businesses do. Sure, an average dev could probably build a working app like that - but could you ship the same quality as someone who can afford to hire an entire UX team?

Probably… it would not make you sit through 30 seconds of ads so that would be a great UX improvement.

Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety

#20

I have been thinking about building a privacy-first tracking app for years now.

The problem is that stuff like privacy and open source don't attract the vast sums of venture capital that ad-selling businesses do. Sure, an average dev could probably build a working app like that - but could you ship the same quality as someone who can afford to hire an entire UX team?

Never mind quality - how can you achieve the same reach as someone with an advertising budget?
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