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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

#351

Post by sshine »

xandrius wrote: post #290
plastic_bag wrote: post #92

There's a FOSS alternative called Drip. https://dripapp.org/ It is funded by Mozilla and Open Knowledge Foundation. Available on iOS and Android.

> Mozilla So they will end up killing it soon? /s

This gets downvoted for being negative, but it was my immediate reaction when I saw "Mozilla": They're axing projects that don't align for strategic reasons that probably make sense, but is simultaneously very Googly.

Association with Mozilla is a cause for concern when considering the longevity of a project.

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

#352

Post by radicalbyte »

carstenhag wrote: post #332
azalemeth wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mensinator is also another FOSS that uses no third party sdks and is reproducibly built for android, fairly actively used, and made by women. https://github.com/EmmaTellblom/Mensinator

As I had failed finding an app that was not ad-ridden or oldish, my girlfriend and I are using this (I am copying her values, to know when her period will be). Also contributing some code :)

Can I ask why you use it? We used test strips - they're really cheap and way more accurate as women's bodies aren't clocks. That was effective for getting pregnant.

Using anything except some kind of active measures to avoid pregnancy doesn't pass my engineer brain and certainly doesn't pass my wife's Pharmacologist brain (i.e. she actually knows what she's talking about whereas I'm using applied probability theory with assumptions).

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

#353

Post by ToucanLoucan »

bethekidyouwant wrote: post #338
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pretty sure all the data for all targeted advertisement is automatically collected? Sure is. > Your solution sounds equivalent to banning all advertising on the Internet Not at all. We made targeted advertising a central pillar of the Internet before we realized what that meant. We've normalized the notion of being spied on on the Internet at all times, but that's a choice we made (or perhaps didn't make) that can…

So if I purchase prenatal vitamins, then it’s OK if that retailer advertises to me assuming I am pregnant but if that retailer sells that information to another retailer now it it’s a problem? Is that the short of it?

Yup! Easy, isn't it?

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

#354

Post by radicalbyte »

yumraj wrote: post #329

Curious does anyone know of a app/tool that can ingest a dump of your medical records, across platforms and EHR/EMRs and providers, and show it to you? Ideally this would be local, or self-hostable, and FOSS, but am still curious if it is not that.

There is little to no standardisation in medical records. There is an International Patient Summary (IPS) which was based on the EU's version.

That and the data itself is decentralised in systems which are designed to be inaccessible.

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

#355

Post by timewizard »

wand3r wrote: post #275

While unlikely, I personally believe that advertising revenue should be taxed at 50%. This would do a lot to align industry incentives. Advertising revenue would be looked at less as a free cash stream that can be bolted on everywhere. In this case, maybe the app could be monetized directly instead of whatever the fuck is happening now.

I personally believe I should be able to install an ad blocker on my device and completely circumvent the problem.

Why are we creating new economic loopholes? Why not just enforce the anti monopoly laws we currently have?

If your advertising becomes to onerous you simply lose the channel altogether. That will quickly "realign" industry priorities.

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

#356

Post by YetAnotherNick »

wand3r wrote: post #275

While unlikely, I personally believe that advertising revenue should be taxed at 50%. This would do a lot to align industry incentives. Advertising revenue would be looked at less as a free cash stream that can be bolted on everywhere. In this case, maybe the app could be monetized directly instead of whatever the fuck is happening now.

If you believe advertisement is bad why not just ban advertisement?

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

#357

Post by epanchin »

Aeolun wrote: post #344

Can anyone tell me why this would be as much of a problem for safety as they are saying? The only thing I can see happening is easier selling of pads and tampons during a certain phase of the moon. Apparently this is what the article suggests too, that certain things are easier to sell at a certain point in the cycle. It’d be embarrassing if someone knew, not dangerous. And even that much feels weird to me for a very…

CNN: “A West Virginia prosecutor is warning women that a miscarriage could lead to criminal charges”.

A gap in periods followed by their resumption could theoretically be enough to lead to prosecution.

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

#358

Post by YetAnotherNick »

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #347
Aeolun wrote: post #344

Can anyone tell me why this would be as much of a problem for safety as they are saying? The only thing I can see happening is easier selling of pads and tampons during a certain phase of the moon. Apparently this is what the article suggests too, that certain things are easier to sell at a certain point in the cycle. It’d be embarrassing if someone knew, not dangerous. And even that much feels weird to me for a very…

I think it becomes more an issue when you consider that in these apps, people likely also enter things like prescription medications they take, what kind of contraception they use, if any. Additionally, if this data is being sold to advertisers, and a user of the app becomes pregnant, it is possible that data could be used to determine that the user might be pregnant before they even know. This has the potential by i…

> things like prescription medications they take, what kind of contraception they use.. determine that the user might be pregnant

Those are PHI, and Google and other big companies wont dare to touch it with 10 foot pole.

And the other part of your argument is so far into hypothetical space. Just because someone gets ads on certain thing doesn't mean the thing is real. These systems hallucinate all the time.

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

#359

Post by ryandrake »

mstridder1 wrote: post #215
freejazz wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a strawman. You said "mysterious circumstances" when we are talking about miscarriages. Do you think they are the same or not? It's a very simple question. >Do you not want police to investigate reports of someone disposing of human remains in a dumpster? What does this have to do with a miscarriage????

[flagged]

> Obviously nobody's being investigated for routine miscarriages.

Not obvious that this will remain the case. These advocates did not just disappear once they achieved their goal of overturning RvW. They are working towards their next milestones. I guarantee you there are at least politically active citizens in all 50 states who would support criminalizing routine miscarriage, if not actual elected officials working towards it, and speaking publicly about it.

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

#360

Post by 90s_dev »

sshine wrote: post #351
xandrius wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mozilla So they will end up killing it soon? /s

This gets downvoted for being negative, but it was my immediate reaction when I saw "Mozilla": They're axing projects that don't align for strategic reasons that probably make sense, but is simultaneously very Googly. Association with Mozilla is a cause for concern when considering the longevity of a project.

Sure, Mozilla does this. So does Google. And Apple. And Microsoft. Everyone does. Pruning is a healthy and expected part of running a business. So what? All software is temporary, given a long enough timeline, even gmail. It's a user's fault for expecting otherwise.
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