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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

#241

Post by OJFord »

phoronixrly wrote: post #173
OJFord wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you joking? There's loads of trivial links. Most obviously: it's stopped (pregnancy, menopause) and therefore so too will stop purchases of certain 'female hygiene products'.

And will be targeted by an avalanche of childbirth-related ads... Isn't this an old story now? We've already seen this happening even before evidence of women's health data being sold to ad companies...

I think even Flo's behaviour is not news, but it is worth distinguishing I think between more organic and generic targeting behaviour based on say searches for health advice or other products, and selling 'first-class' health data as it were which is a much stronger signal and feels more personal.

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

#242

Post by rhubarbtree »

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.

Haven’t Apple introduced a lot of privacy controls for their users? Seems like some apps do care.

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

#243

Post by sundarurfriend »

lrvick wrote: post #227
sigmoid10 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 incompatib…

Do you have a blog post or similar that describes how you do this?

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

#244

Post by sayamqazi »

mvdwoord wrote: post #240
sigmoid10 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well, perhaps they make verifying it hard.. but what is stopping you from publishing an app in the app store, while also hosting the source code for anyone to see, and use? 99 bucks a year?

Who is gonna make sure that what I put in github is exactly what I am pushing to the store.

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

#245

Post by raxxorraxor »

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?

If we didn't have these shitty mobile OS ecosystems, we would have sensible apps to do that. But people then throw something up about "modern" security in operation systems. As if this data exfiltration isn't more or less the worst case of a security problem.

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

#246

Post by philipallstar »

ndriscoll wrote: post #78
bombcar wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There needs to be penalties that piece the "limited liability" because otherwise it's just "pay to get away with it" as we currently have. I've been for a "corporate death penalty" (if companies are people, they can be executed) which would result in the shareholders losing everything along with executives being perp-walked.

Not just executives. They don't will these things into existence. Someone had to build functionality to send user data to Facebook.

Not to side with this behaviour, but I think if you consent to it in the Ts & Cs then it's legal. And that makes sense - otherwise how else do you agree to things or not agree to them?

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

#247

Post by philipallstar »

sdoering wrote: post #7
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…

Why is it a waste? If you want to provide an app, one should follow the law and the regulations. It isn't the wild west (and even that had regulations). Also: Why blame the victims, not the perp?

> Why blame the victims

This is a bit of a revealing phrasing, but I'll bite anyway. If someone shot themselves in the toe because they were being careless, am I blaming the victim by saying that they shouldn't have been careless? Not everything is cops and robbers.

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

#248

Post by philipallstar »

SlinkyOnStairs wrote: post #50
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…

> All the money spent on regulations and regulators to cover increasingly niche opt-in services that are entirely unnecessary is a waste. That isn't what's happening. The regulations don't get little niche cases added to them, they're writen to be generally applicable to all niches. > It's not a medical requirement from a doctor, so just keep a diary if you want to. "Just don't use the computer if you don't want comp…

> "Just don't use the computer if you don't want companies to rat you out to the fascist government that'll imprison or kill you for having a miscarriage" is a ridiculous victim-blaming position.

No-one's saying this, and based on your wording you seem to be trained on some very predictable and narrow corpuses.

> It's not a "medical requirement" except for the many many many cases where it is.

Flo is not a medical device. It's not prescribed. It's just a consumer app, no different medically or legally to writing your feelings diary into Google Keep. If you have an actual medical device app then this would be a problem.

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

#249

Post by dspillett »

WarcrimeActual wrote: post #204
dspillett wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ridiculous bit of “modern” slang… that has been in use for a few hundred years? Not a word I use much myself except when referring to “yappy little dogs”, but it is definitely common among those the generation above me and that above them.

I think it's pretty obvious that it's being used differently here. And in a way that is annoying enough to me to guarantee that I don't make it past that word.

> I think it's pretty obvious that it's being used differently here.

How differently? Please describe the obviousness I am missing, oh enlightened linguist:

Yapping: present participle of yap

Yap [verb, informal, often indicates a disapproving tone]: to talk continuously

Example: “I've just had my mother on the phone, yapping away for half an hour!”

> And in a way that is annoying enough to me to guarantee that I don't make it past that word

[makes mental note to increase use of the word “yapping” in future writing…]

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

#250

Post by embedding-shape »

ksenzee wrote: post #236
embedding-shape wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way she would notice it "sooner or later" is by her bleeding on her clothes and possibly even furniture. No, many can feel it beforehand, and you notice it when you go to the bathroom before as well, as certain things change their properties slightly, it's not a "nothing" phase and then "floods out of your body". It's borderline parody how little education there is for males when it comes to things like this.

I appreciate that you've educated yourself about these issues, but let me assure you from decades of personal experience and conversations with other women that it is useful to be notified when your period is going to start.

More "experienced" it than anything, everyone is different of course which is why I'm not saying that everyone needs/don't need it. Thank you but no need for any assurances, my partner lives with me and shares her experience and thoughts about it freely, and I'll continue to listen to what she says she needs/doesn't need :)
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