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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

#41
post #39

Hey surely Meta wouldn’t send that data to a government interested in regulating women’s reproductive rights

[flagged]

People in power want the information to identify a narrower set of people who may have been pregnant and then did not have a child and so may have had an abortion.

And facebook doesn't care about people's rights when those people in power are able to block Facebook from acquiring some new startup they want to buy, so facebook is willing to share the information.

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

#42
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does thumbing their noses mean? They have been paying while continuing their behavior, or not paying at all? The first seems like it could be resolved with an escalating fine schedule, and the second could be mitigated by requiring Apple/Google to remove it from the app store (one of the rare cases walled gardens are on consumers' side).

> What does thumbing their noses mean? They have been paying while continuing their behavior, or not paying at all? Malicious compliance. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Apple "While Apple implemented App Store policies to allow developers to link to alternative payment options, the policies still required the developer to provide a 27% revenue share back to Apple , and heavily restricted how…

Ah you mean generally, not in this specific case.

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

#43

Why would anyone think that a non-HIPPA compliant app would keep medical information private to the level of security needed for medical data? Flo has definitely breached user trust, but that trust seems misplaced from the get-go.

People are used to living in highly regulated markets. When they go to a grocery store to buy lettuce, people don't stop to ask "what regulatory regime is this lettuce being sold under?". They just trust that food being sold in a food store will meet our societal standards for food. I can go to Amazon and order a raw steak for delivery, and still trust it will meet standards. The situation with wellness apps is that…

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

#44

> 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…

I've never used Flo specifically, so I don't know what kind of data analysis it has available, but period data is the #1 most useful health data to have an app crunch for you, and "your period starts tomorrow" is a pretty darn useful notification to get.

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

#45

I don't actually see this as a problem, and instead it's a PSA everyone needs to internalize: If you put data onto a networked device it may be sent to some place else. If you don't want your data being shared: Use a device that does not have any networking capability (both hardware and software wise) Use a pen and paper, you can shred and destroy as you see fit. If you're using an application on a mobile device with…

Also: if you are not paying the service provider for the service, you are not their customer - you are their product.

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

#46

> 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…

[deleted]

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

#47
post #39

Hey surely Meta wouldn’t send that data to a government interested in regulating women’s reproductive rights

[flagged]

If you stop having a period for a few months and then start again, it may be worth buying some location data during that time to see if you were near any medical offices that may have offered illegal abortion services.

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

#48

It's really sad that we have all this technology but we can't trust any of it.

I'll make a period tracker for you for 5 bucks a month. You won't buy it, because it costs 5 bucks a month. So I'll have to find alternative monetisation strategies.

Nobody is going to trust your $5 a month service.

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

#49

> 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…

Even if it was a requirement, doctors do not generally have legal authority to compel action. Hell, the average doctor would probably agree that the average patient hardly ever does what they’re told…

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

#50

> 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 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.

It's the practical reality of a fascist government that they won't enact privacy laws. And yes, women really shouldn't be using period tracking apps in the US, or made by the US. But that doesn't mean privacy laws are some "silly waste of my tax money".

It's not a "medical requirement" except for the many many many cases where it is. Similarly, this position extends to literally everything. Nothing "needs to be an app". But unless we want to pack up and discard the entire software industry, it really ought to be better about privacy like this.

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