Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cam.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 438 posts

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

#291

Post by NoTranslationL »

kevinventullo wrote: post #139
NoTranslationL wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just to be clear, you’re saying cloud backups are off by default, and the user must explicitly enable them? If so, just FYI I believe that pattern is usually referred to as “opt-in.” As in, the feature is off by default, and the user must opt in to using it.

Yes, you have that right

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

#292

Post by bowsamic »

crazygringo wrote: post #127
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…

Can you elaborate? Because even with hygiene products, people buy them before they need them and stock up. And with food, you're often shopping for a week and for the whole family. You put things on a shopping list and don't buy them the same day you're using them, or even the same week. I suspect that even if the manager thought they could determine it, their actual "results" were entirely random. After all, how is…

> And with food, you're often shopping for a week

That’s not how people shop here in Europe

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

#294

Post by OtherShrezzing »

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 theme of anecdote has been trotted out for more than a half century. In the 80’s the yarn was that a supermarket could tell when a woman was pregnant before her doctor from her purchase patterns alone.

To this date, no supermarket has ever produced this result - or any thematically similar.

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

#295

Post by isodev »

dylan604 wrote: post #126
iamacyborg wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t believe they mean storing it on a company owned device, just that Apple and Google are US companies

maybe, but it reads like IT managed devices owned by your employer. i've never seen it referenced as "managed" when referring to the fact that iOS/Android are US companies. seems a strained way to phrase it

Your iPhone is fully managed by Apple. They control which apps are preinstalled, which apps you can install and uninstall, they can even intervene and install/uninstall apps without your intervention. Your phone needs to communicate with Apple even to just be a phone for calling and SMS. The data from apps is included in your iCloud backups (in addition to the data some apps choose to share with iCloud so it syncs between devices) and so easily accessible. We’re not talking about individual targeting here, but there are no technological barriers to guard against your data being shared by “the platform”.

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

#297

Post by davkan »

nartho wrote: post #287
an_guy wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is the correct use of elucidate, "to make light of". Perfectly cromulent.

While OP’s usage of elucidate was accurate, your definition is off. Perhaps you were thinking of “to shed light on”?

“To make light of“ would be to downplay the significance of something.

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

#298

Post by ceejayoz »

gwervc wrote: post #296
rotis wrote: post #293

[flagged]

[flagged]

> The report’s authors caution that cycle tracking app (CTA) data in the wrong hands could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking – and limit access to abortion.

> However, the report highlights how in the UK, apps designed for women's health have been used to charge women for illegally accessing abortion services... In the US, data about menstrual cycles has been collected by officials in an attempt to undermine abortion access.

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

#299

Post by freedomben »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #82
XorNot wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duress modes are a frequently overlooked feature in general - e.g. I don't want to just block access to my location, I want to lie about my location entirely.

I also would like “give an incorrect location” as an option. Something like that would probably never be supported by Google or Apple officially, because unlike some other privacy features, it’s actively and overtly hostile to advertisers.

For years when Android was a lot more root friendly, this was easy to do. IIRC there was an Xposed module you could activate to do it. If you root I'm certain there are still apps that will do it, though I'm sure Google/Apple will be actively hostile against it, let alone actually support it
Post reply on HN