Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the risk to women's safety is that someone the woman doesn't want to know, could find out that they're pregnant. (Or using birth control or whatever)
Someone being an advertiser buying the data?
Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
361–370 of 438 posts
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#362They 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…
Given recurring purchase subscriptions from Amazon Prime, perhaps this data is different from 27 years ago
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Some companies kill projects much more frequently than others.
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Not just location, but all privacy sensitive API's. The OS should have built in support for segregating location, contacts, calendars, storage, etc. (GrapheneOS does this quite well with storage scopes). As part of this segregation you should be able to redirect the API to a custom implementation. Thus, my transit app would have access to my real location while Amazon thinks I'm still at home and Pokemon Go thinks I'…
You mention Pokemon Go... this would basically be the end of that game, no? That's probably worth the tradeoff, but worth mentioning.
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#365Can 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.
While it's true that CNN ran an article like that, the underlying claim has been formally rebutted by the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Association, who clarified that:
> Women who experience miscarriage are not required to notify law enforcement and should not fear prosecution…recent public statements do not reflect the consensus of West Virginia prosecutors.
https://wchstv.com/news/local/wva-prosecuting-attorneys-deno...
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 w…
this article got me wondering where the partner app, potentially named drop?, that warns drip user's partners to be more careful in their choice of words, or lack thereof, during that special time where domestic emotions often devolve in to an irrational mess ending with a few days of sleeping on the couch until the drip has subsided
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#367Can 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…
>Can anyone tell me why this would be as much of a problem for safety as they are saying?
The size of the problem is directly correlated with their level of funding. What else can they say?
>The only thing I can see happening is easier selling of pads and tampons during a certain phase of the moon.
No, with that attitude you definitely won't get a research grants.
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#368If anyone is interested in a privacy focused tracking app that stores all your data locally, I make an app called Reflect [0] whose sole purpose is this, plus on-device analysis. We’re working on a menstrual tracking feature right now and it’s pretty far along. We’ve just released an anomaly detection feature as well. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...
Are you using OHTTP? If there are cloud aspects - I think you would want to. Learn more: https://oblivious.network/ohttp
Are you affiliated with OHTTP?
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
It can be marked as deleted in the file table. Destroying a paper can be done on the toilet or simply eaten.
nitpick: data is at least partially recoverable for both of these examples for a period of time as well. so they are kind of soft deletes. but yeah, probably much faster to full delete than most cloudy services with backups. along with some other anti-recovery benefits (the bodily fluids kind).
iPhone and Android now use file encryption for every file. Impossible to recover a file as both file and key are deleted.
Re: Menstrual tracking app data is gold mine for advertisers that risks women safety
#370Can 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.
As far as I understand, the US judicial system is open. How many women have already been held accountable for miscarriages?