Apple Health has period tracking, and they don't share the data with anyone without your permission.
When tracking your period lets companies track you
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Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#32One solution to this is legally enforceable, personal ownership of ones data. Distributed machine learning makes it possible to proffer data for insights without necessarily sharing it off-device. And unlocking some functionality in exchange. I'm sure more elaborate patterns of exchanges are possible. Is anyone working on this?
The GDPR does this, but it's pretty ineffective. I'm tracked just as much as before, but now they tell me first. Opting out is difficult at best, and often simply impossible.
That's because of a lack of meaningful enforcement. Most dark patterns and annoyances we associated to the GDPR are illegal but until the law is enforced with the "4% of global revenue fines" nothing will change.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#33Is there a transcript? Not a fan of audio or video forms of information, far easier to read. However, no surprise. Literally every app anymore ought to be considered from the perspective of, "What can this app possibly get from my phone, by technical standards, regardless of what I think of that?" It's got accelerometer data and gyro data? It's doing something nasty with it. It's got location data? Oh, baby, hope it'…
For phone apps, you may like https://trackercontrol.org/. It's mostly set and forget and blocks 99% of tracking by default in my experience.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#34Validates my decision to self-host and donate to Baby Buddy: https://github.com/babybuddy/babybuddy I figured all those “free” (and possibly even the paid) baby apps were likely doing all sorts of shady things with that data. One thing for me to use a period/fertility tracker for myself - quite another to throw my child’s data up to god knows who for god knows what ends long before he could possibly consent. If you d…
> If you don’t know why it matters how many diapers there have been in the last 24 hours and what kind of mess was in there, along with how often and how much milk was consumed, you’ve obviously not been the primary caretaker of an infant recently.
I don't want to downplay your software and your effort but my wife and I raised two wonderful baby girls without any app tracking how many diapers we changed or how many poo they did. We only had to be a bit more "strict" on weight-gain tracking for the 1st one during her first 2 months or so because she was born quite small and we had some issues breastfeeding her at the beginning. I understand there might be situations where it is useful to track some data of the infant but I would say it's just if there is some underlying condition.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#35Privacy is very important, but the problem with self hosted apps, which I mostly try to use, is that people will not be able to take conclusions from the aggregated data
Because on the plus side this apps can help detect health issues on the population, in certain areas or on people taking certain drugs
Covid vaccines linked to 'disrupted menstrual cycles in young women' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-covid-vaccine-might-im...
This discussions applies to using most free online services/apps, strange we don't see this discussion more often
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#36I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource. There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others. However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home. Recently, t…
Your post reminds me of how ironic it is that despite the amazing wealth of software that exists today day, if your use case involves any expectation of privacy you generally can't find anything that fits your needs.
It's out there but it gets deliberately buried instead of promoted.
Back when I had access to a decently-sized database of scraped app data, a sure-fire way to find hidden gems was to search for apps that did not ask for internet access.
Of course Google does not let you filter for that in any way in the app store, because people making and sharing apps without aggressively monetising them does not make money for Google.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#37I basically do not use apps any more except the few that I either personally vet or must otherwise use.
GDPR helps, but is by far not a panacea, since there are so many offenders. One case that stuck into my mind was that of a friend which used an app by a German company which advertised the fact that they were keeping data on-device and not doing any analysis. One day after an update the app was blocked by a full-screen dialog presenting new terms of service claiming that data had to be synced to the cloud. There was only an accept button and no way to opt out or export the data.
The only company that I'd trust now with this kind of data is Apple. And even there and in spite of all the security and privacy measures they have in place, I would be wary of syncing to the cloud.
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#38I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource. There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others. However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home. Recently, t…
I'm curious in what situations you were using the pulse oximeter. From what I've seen the performance of even the best watches is questionable in the normal range - one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HIcwMhEny0
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#39Hot take: all these body tracking apps do almost nothing to actually help you be healthy or improve your life, and the only reason that people feel a need to use them is because advertising has convinced them that it is “part of a healthy diet”. Whether or not they invade your privacy, they reduce your idea of your health to a set of numbers that are divorced from the actual reality of your life and your overall well…
This is a very broad generalization that doesn't actually seem to be accurate.
We know that there are benefits to tracking your blood pressure at home, for example[0].
In addition, and closer to the topic in the original link, there are simply concrete benefits (ie: birth control) to an app like Natural Cycles[1], which involves tracking your temperature and period in an app. I understand that for some people this type of additional option may be difficult to appreciate, especially if you're not a potential user. It requires a lot of discipline: taking your temp consistently and at just the right time. But for women who might not be interested in or respond well to hormonal birth control, it can be an invaluable tool.
Even for normal period tracking apps: tracking one's period _can_ be useful. It can help to monitor fluctuations that would otherwise easily go unnoticed for longer than they need to. I've had friends who missed very early or late periods for months before they realized their schedule was off and that it might be something they should see a doctor about.
In conclusion, this "all apps/tracking health data is useless" sentiment that gets thrown around so commonly does not really seem to be in touch with reality.
[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/how-to-monitor-a...
[1] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-allo...
Re: When tracking your period lets companies track you
#40Is there a transcript? Not a fan of audio or video forms of information, far easier to read. However, no surprise. Literally every app anymore ought to be considered from the perspective of, "What can this app possibly get from my phone, by technical standards, regardless of what I think of that?" It's got accelerometer data and gyro data? It's doing something nasty with it. It's got location data? Oh, baby, hope it'…
For phone apps, you may like https://trackercontrol.org/ . It's mostly set and forget and blocks 99% of tracking by default in my experience.
Trackers are a tiny part of the problem, most nefarious data collection isn’t some third party ad network (in apps), but is intrinsically bound to the core functionality of the product. It’s impossible to block the data collection when the data collection is the service.