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

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

#101

Post by em-bee »

nlitened wrote: post #85
JohnBooty wrote: post #47

For those wondering why this is a safety issue, in many American states abortion or "fetal harm" is considered murder. You can be imprisoned, theoretically for life. This is of course a rapidly evolving area of law since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Having one's menstrual data available for subpoena is therefore quite a literal safety risk. "At least 38 states authorize homicide charges for causing pregnancy loss" https:…

[flagged]

try searching again. here is one example: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abortion-laws-punishin...

it was overturned, but at least one judge believed that imprisonment was warranted and issued his verdict accordingly. and many politicians believe that too and push for laws to that effect.

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

#102

Post by dylan604 »

xenator wrote: post #87
bmacho wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple + open source + no access to network + no updates (idk about Android/iOS cross-app data sharing).

Still data can be uploaded to the cloud and will be available to cloud providers. So there is more vectors to protect user data.

Still, I can steal your phone or use my $5 wrench to get the data. There is no guarantee, so why bother. Hypotheticals can always be used to shit on any idea. They just are not always helpful

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

#103

Post by [deleted] »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #89

They don't need apps to do this. I sat in a meeting with a data broker in 1998 where one of their managers was chuffed that they could determine menstrual cycles by analyzing purchasing records. And it wasn't hygiene products. Various foods and other spending patterns pop out after a 28-day correlation over groups of women that are artificially "synced" into cohort groups. This invasiveness will continue so long as t…

[deleted]

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

#104

Post by giantg2 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #89

They don't need apps to do this. I sat in a meeting with a data broker in 1998 where one of their managers was chuffed that they could determine menstrual cycles by analyzing purchasing records. And it wasn't hygiene products. Various foods and other spending patterns pop out after a 28-day correlation over groups of women that are artificially "synced" into cohort groups. This invasiveness will continue so long as t…

This is interesting though. How would these sorts of correlation be protected against? We already know that anonymous health data can be traced back. Gather enough data in any domain, and you can pinpoint someone.

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

#105

Post by [deleted] »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #89

They don't need apps to do this. I sat in a meeting with a data broker in 1998 where one of their managers was chuffed that they could determine menstrual cycles by analyzing purchasing records. And it wasn't hygiene products. Various foods and other spending patterns pop out after a 28-day correlation over groups of women that are artificially "synced" into cohort groups. This invasiveness will continue so long as t…

[deleted]

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

#106

Post by beAbU »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #70
ubermonkey wrote: post #56

In the current climate, no one should use a menstrual tracking app of any kind, even those with on-device-only data. Asking normal people to figure out the risk profile of that data, and to evaluate the trustworthiness of a given app, is just too much. Use a paper calendar.

The risk profile of paper seems to be equal to the risk profile of on-device-only? How do they differ? Something you have v. something you have

The argument is that normies can't differentiate between apps that are really safe (i.e. on-device processing + data) versus apps that merely say they are safe, nor do they have the tools/knowledge to verify these claims.

It's safer then to recommend to stay away from apps entirely, and rather use paper, for as long as you have that piece of paper, your data is private and safe.

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

#107

Post by [deleted] »

ubermonkey wrote: post #56

In the current climate, no one should use a menstrual tracking app of any kind, even those with on-device-only data. Asking normal people to figure out the risk profile of that data, and to evaluate the trustworthiness of a given app, is just too much. Use a paper calendar.

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by dylan604 »

isodev wrote: post #77
testing22321 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always worth pointing out there are many billions of people who live completely free of this fear of reprisals from the state/country they live in

True, but for many, even “local only” apps store their data on devices managed by US-based companies. Would Apple sell your data to advertisers? - probably not. Would Apple share your data with law enforcement? - of course, and they don’t even need to tell you.

why why why are you using a company device for such personal information? don't do this.

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

#109

Post by omeid2 »

leereeves wrote: post #51
NoTranslationL wrote: post #23

If anyone is interested in a privacy focused tracking app that stores all your data locally, I make an app called Reflect [0] whose sole purpose is this, plus on-device analysis. We’re working on a menstrual tracking feature right now and it’s pretty far along. We’ve just released an anomaly detection feature as well. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

That sounds like a good idea with one obvious challenge: how can you prove that data will remain private forever?

I was going to say operate it under a non-profit but then I laughed in Altman.

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

#110

Post by NoTranslationL »

leereeves wrote: post #51
NoTranslationL wrote: post #23

If anyone is interested in a privacy focused tracking app that stores all your data locally, I make an app called Reflect [0] whose sole purpose is this, plus on-device analysis. We’re working on a menstrual tracking feature right now and it’s pretty far along. We’ve just released an anomaly detection feature as well. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

That sounds like a good idea with one obvious challenge: how can you prove that data will remain private forever?

That’s a tough guarantee, ultimately you’re placing trust in the device’s security once you limit your attack surface to just local data. So that’s why we’re working on encryption with key custody. Any feature like cloud backups are explicitly opt-out by default so no one is putting their data onto someone else’s servers without knowing what they’re getting into.
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