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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

#221

Post by rdevilla »

derwiki wrote: post #211
rdevilla wrote: post #208

I don't really give a shit at this point. In Toronto it's legal to even record into your condo neighbor's unit 24/7 and livestream your recording to the Internet, unbeknownst to the inhabitants. It has been demonstrated that nobody will enforce anything. At this point I am a privacy nihilist, and I expect all information about anyone to be exploited all the time. Everyone should do the same.

I live in America so I can’t speak to Canadian laws, but what you’re describing is the same in the States. If you are in public, or can be seen by someone who is in public, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It’s how paparazzi work.

Does that include putting your ear to your neighbor's wall and recording into their private dwelling?

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

#222

Post by sigmoid10 »

lrvick wrote: post #195
everdrive wrote: post #192

If the app could make another $0.05 selling your location to kidnapping gangs, they'd do it. There's no such thing as an app that cares about your privacy or your interests.

There is such a thing. FOSS.

Unfortunately, companies like Apple (and soon Google as well) are making this unnecessarily hard in their phone ecosystems.

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

#223

Post by derwiki »

rdevilla wrote: post #221
derwiki wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in America so I can’t speak to Canadian laws, but what you’re describing is the same in the States. If you are in public, or can be seen by someone who is in public, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It’s how paparazzi work.

Does that include putting your ear to your neighbor's wall and recording into their private dwelling?

No idea, I’m only speaking to photography

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

#224

Post by TZubiri »

"Flo, through the Flo App, unlawfully shared users’ sensitive health data – including menstrual cycle, ovulation, and pregnancy-related information – with third parties such as Meta, Google, and Flurry for their own commercial us"

If the app sold the data to Meta through extremely automated Meta platforms. Doesn't the bulk of legal liability and social backlash lie on the app instead of on Meta?

Like sure if a company is caught buying stolen goods, maybe they could tighten up due diligence, but the actual thief is the main culprit.

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

#225

Post by TZubiri »

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?

Same as any other application, if you lose or change your phone you don't lose data.

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

#226

Post by jamesfinlayson »

drakonka wrote: post #220
alistairSH wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I wonder if you would ask the same thing about any number of apps - like fitness trackers, mood trackers, supplement trackers, online diary apps, task trackers, etc? You don't even need a notes app - you could just carry a notebook around or email notes to yourself. As for why people may want to track menstrual cycles specifically, it is because bodies can be greatly influenced by what phase of the menstrual cycle we…

> fertility tracking

This. Life is busy and some people just want an app to tell them when they're ovulating.

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

#227

Post by lrvick »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #222
lrvick wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is such a thing. FOSS.

Unfortunately, companies like Apple (and soon Google as well) are making this unnecessarily hard in their phone ecosystems.

It is actually a perfectly practical choice to completely ignore those ecosystems. I am the founder and active engineer at two companies and two large open source projects and have a family, travel a lot, and have an active social life in Silicon Valley.

I also do not use any Apple, Google, Meta, or Microsoft products and exclusively use open source software for all of my work.

It turns out none of this is incompatible, everyone just convinces themselves it is.

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

#228

Post by malfist »

rdevilla wrote: post #208

I don't really give a shit at this point. In Toronto it's legal to even record into your condo neighbor's unit 24/7 and livestream your recording to the Internet, unbeknownst to the inhabitants. It has been demonstrated that nobody will enforce anything. At this point I am a privacy nihilist, and I expect all information about anyone to be exploited all the time. Everyone should do the same.

Apathy is a poor response to this. Especially when you tell others to also be apathetic

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

#229

Post by DANmode »

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?

What’s a server?

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

#230

Post by throwaway81523 »

freediddy wrote: post #166

Meta only cares about ad revenue so could they be researching or have discovered a link between buying trends and links to a woman's cycle?

> Meta only cares about ad revenue

I can't accept that premise. They'll take any revenue they can get, including reselling that same data to Palantir or to RFK Jr's health department. Did you skip several periods and then suddenly start having them again? Sounds like you've had an illegal abortion. SWAT raid on your home, incoming. And so on.

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