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The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

bbc.com

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Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

#2

Post by bell-cot »

Only one (of the six reviewed) that I'd call acceptable -

> Euki is the only app Mozilla recommends without reservations. "Euki is special," Wodinsky* says.

> Unlike the other apps on this list, Mozilla says Euki keeps all your health information stored on your device, without even sending it to the company's servers.

> You don't even need to make an account, so you can stay completely anonymous. Euki also offers a "decoy" feature that shows fake, harmless information if someone gets your phone and tries to snoop.

*Shoshana Wodinsky, a privacy research analyst who tested 6 period tracker on behalf of the Mozilla Foundation

Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

#6

Post by _def »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

Only one (of the six reviewed) that I'd call acceptable - > Euki is the only app Mozilla recommends without reservations. "Euki is special," Wodinsky* says. > Unlike the other apps on this list, Mozilla says Euki keeps all your health information stored on your device, without even sending it to the company's servers. > You don't even need to make an account, so you can stay completely anonymous. Euki also offers a "…

It's really sad to see that this is not the usual kind of software people are exposed too.

Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

#7

Post by _blk »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

Only one (of the six reviewed) that I'd call acceptable - > Euki is the only app Mozilla recommends without reservations. "Euki is special," Wodinsky* says. > Unlike the other apps on this list, Mozilla says Euki keeps all your health information stored on your device, without even sending it to the company's servers. > You don't even need to make an account, so you can stay completely anonymous. Euki also offers a "…

It indeed looks like the rest are "you're the product" (tm) type apps. Honestly, I don't expect much from Play Store (or App Store for that matter) these days but as a developer it's terrible what hoops you have to go through to publish your app.. Endless forms to fill out manually and then the overall store quality is just disappointing. Ads, ads, more ads and privacy and security debacles. Now it also looks like locking down on outside app stores like F-Droid.. Developers and hackers will find solutions but for the general population I'm not very hopeful. As to the period apps:

> This is also not Planned Parenthood's first run in with privacy criticisms. I wrote about similar problems four years ago, for example. The organisation didn't respond to a request for comment.

.. And it doesn't look like they care to change anything about it. Who can end this on a positive note? I hate to be this negative but I don't see it.

Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

#8

Post by soumyadeb »

RudderStack founder here.

Although the article doesn't accuse us of doing anything improper, we weren't contacted for comment, so I'd like to clarify our role.

We are customer data infrastructure, not a data broker. We do not buy, sell or monetize the customer data that passes through our systems.

Our role is analogous to infrastructure: customers choose what data to send, and RudderStack routes that data to the destinations they configure (analytics tools, data warehouses, marketing platforms, etc.). The customer owns the data and decides where it goes; RudderStack does not repurpose it for its own business.

Infrastructure providers like us should be held to high standards for security and privacy, but we should not be confused with companies that collect or monetize end-user data.

Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

#9

Post by annzabelle »

I use Macrofactor (macro tracking app for lifters with good privacy/UI) as a weight/period tracker, and occasional macro tracker. I don't think anybody is going to go to the effort to hack their databases to find the 100 women tracking our periods on it.

The one downside is that they do days since last period as days since the end of your last period, not days since the start, unlike literally every woman and gynecologist ever.

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