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Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

femtechdesigndesk.substack.com

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Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#81

Post by JohnFen »

embedding-shape wrote: post #74
moffers wrote: post #19

I don’t have the right configuration of equipment to use an app like this, but does anyone know why this needs to be a service-driven app? What piece of functionality requires a server to track your health?

My partner uses the app this article is about (Flo) and I have an account there too in order for her to share the data with me. I guess you could do it with some sort of P2P sync with cryptography involved locally instead, and/or E2E for stuff sent via the servers. Kind of surprised me they didn't have E2E already, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore.

Or, you know, she could just track it without any app at all and share it with you in person.

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#82

Post by alistairSH »

juggina wrote: post #56
freeAgent wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stop having a period for a few months and then start again, it may be worth buying some location data during that time to see if you were near any medical offices that may have offered illegal abortion services.

Could they get a warrant for that data anyway?

How would they select which women get warrants served if they don't have some basic cycle-tracking data?

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#83

Post by jeffbee »

ozlikethewizard wrote: post #72
jeffbee wrote: post #64

Does anyone happen to know if Meta and Google have ever recovered these judgements from the app developers? All of the industry terms of service specifically forbid SDK licensees from sending sensitive personal data to the platforms, and they require the licensee to indemnify the platform against any judgement that arises from violating those terms. See Meta's statement on this verdict, which seems pretty reasonable…

I mean this seems like an attempt at a get out of jail free card. If meta didnt want this info, why are they accepting and processing it?

It's just a generic key-value API.

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#85

Post by JohnFen »

ksenzee wrote: post #44
philipallstar wrote: post #3

> It seems like we can’t just necessarily leave it up to companies – or their ragtag teams of crackpot lawyers rewriting privacy policies every few months – to keep our private data private. It's not a medical requirement from a doctor, so just keep a diary if you want to. Not everything needs to be an app. All the money spent on regulations and regulators to cover increasingly niche opt-in services that are entirely…

I've never used Flo specifically, so I don't know what kind of data analysis it has available, but period data is the #1 most useful health data to have an app crunch for you, and "your period starts tomorrow" is a pretty darn useful notification to get.

Most of the women I know well enough to know this about them track and predict the onset of their next period without needing an application. It isn't exactly rocket science.

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#86

Post by embedding-shape »

JohnFen wrote: post #81
embedding-shape wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner uses the app this article is about (Flo) and I have an account there too in order for her to share the data with me. I guess you could do it with some sort of P2P sync with cryptography involved locally instead, and/or E2E for stuff sent via the servers. Kind of surprised me they didn't have E2E already, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore.

Or, you know, she could just track it without any app at all and share it with you in person.

[flagged]

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#87

Post by alistairSH »

moffers wrote: post #19

I don’t have the right configuration of equipment to use an app like this, but does anyone know why this needs to be a service-driven app? What piece of functionality requires a server to track your health?

Not being a women, I've always wondered what insight the app gives regardless of data traveling to a server... does it do anything you can't do with a simple notebook app (like Apple's default Notes)?

If you have an irregular period, does this app help "guess" when it's going to start/end?

If you have a regular period, why do you need an app at all?

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#88

Post by ndriscoll »

jeffbee wrote: post #83
ozlikethewizard wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this seems like an attempt at a get out of jail free card. If meta didnt want this info, why are they accepting and processing it?

It's just a generic key-value API.

That doesn't answer the question. It just restates the problem. Why aren't they doing diligence on what they're accepting from their business partners, or what types of partners they're working with? There's no reason they couldn't know the company deals with health data and place it under additional scrutiny.

Re: Period tracking app, Flo, found to be selling user data to Meta

#89

Post by JohnFen »

Schiendelman wrote: post #65
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #18

It's really sad that we have all this technology but we can't trust any of it.

I think that kind of thinking is similar to the "both sides" stuff in politics. There's a meaningful difference in trustworthiness between different options. For instance, if you need to track your period, the built in iOS apps are secure, especially if you're using advanced icloud encryption.

The trouble is that it's literally impossible to tell what applications are trustworthy and what applications are not, or whether they'll remain trustworthy over time. So you have to treat them all as untrustworthy. It's a fair rule of thumb because the majority of them can't be trusted.
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