List of recommended ones: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/health-and-wellness/#menstr...
>Drip, Euki, and Apple Health
The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
11–20 of 73 posts
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#12I 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 gynecol…
MacroFactor is very rare in the modern software world, probably because it was created by fitness science junkies rather than VCs or engineers. Greg was extremely adamant from the start that they're charging money, take it or leave it, but selling the product itself is all they're ever going to sell. No monetizing user data. No dark patterns to drive engagement and keep you in the app. All they're trying to drive is better lifting and better eating because that's honest to god Greg and Lindsay Nuckols passions in life, not getting rich. Classic lifestyle business that'll never eat the world, but it'll pay the rent in North Carolina for two 40 year-olds with no kids.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#13RudderStack 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 dest…
Awesome insight. Thanks for clarifying! @bbc please update because there's definitely an implicit complicity in your article.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#14Whenever this issue comes up I feel the need to relay a story about a meeting with a databroker in 1998 who was tracking menstrual cycles using purchasing records of a wide variety of consumer goods. They will track you to optimize their manipulative, targeted advertising whether you have an invasive app or not.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#15RudderStack 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 dest…
Are analytics tools, data warehouses, and marketing platforms the only types of destinations you support? Because if that's the case then your system appears to only be useful for privacy invasions.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#16RudderStack 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 dest…
The article did not accuse you of anything and went so far as to say “There's nothing unlawful going on, and there's no reason to think RudderStack (or any company mentioned in this story) is doing something nefarious.”
I’m struggling to understand why you would feel the need to comment. Or why you even think the BBC would have contacted you. This is one of those moments in PR where a response with no reason makes reasonable people wonder why.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#17I 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 gynecol…
MacroFactor is very rare in the modern software world, probably because it was created by fitness science junkies rather than VCs or engineers. Greg was extremely adamant from the start that they're charging money, take it or leave it, but selling the product itself is all they're ever going to sell. No monetizing user data. No dark patterns to drive engagement and keep you in the app. All they're trying to drive is…
I do find that the best apps are the paid ones, they don't need to be relying on selling user data to make a profit.
Sadly, a lot of the great boutique lifestyle business paid apps are apple only, and I can't stand the typing experience on iphones.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#18As others in the thread have pointed out, Euki is a wonderful application and having interacted with members of their team, I know they are committed to maintaining their liberating privacy stances.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#19Whenever this issue comes up I feel the need to relay a story about a meeting with a databroker in 1998 who was tracking menstrual cycles using purchasing records of a wide variety of consumer goods. They will track you to optimize their manipulative, targeted advertising whether you have an invasive app or not.
I've heard rumors, maybe that far back, of women getting mail ads for baby clothes a couple weeks before having a positive pregnancy test.
Re: The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
#20I 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 gynecol…
MacroFactor is very rare in the modern software world, probably because it was created by fitness science junkies rather than VCs or engineers. Greg was extremely adamant from the start that they're charging money, take it or leave it, but selling the product itself is all they're ever going to sell. No monetizing user data. No dark patterns to drive engagement and keep you in the app. All they're trying to drive is…
I've been using Macrofactor for many years (after a HN recommendation) and now that you mention it, I've been super happy with the experience and don't detect a whiff of dark patterns, unwarranted tracking, or bad business practices that plague other apps.
The value of tracking my diet and health has been well worth it. I will happily pay their asking price and it's heartening to hear that the founders/owners are committed to good practices.
Side note: I recently switched over fully to the Proton Unlimited ecosystem. Another ethical service that I will happily pay for.
I'm beginning to think that we might be able to turn this shitty ad-industry-lead ship around, folks. Or at least we have strong alternatives these days for the people who care.
Now if I can just get my social groups to use Signal.