The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker

44 points - today at 8:15 PM

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kevin_thibedeau today at 10:05 PM
Whenever this issue comes up I feel the need to relay a story about a meeting with a databroker in 1998 who was tracking menstrual cycles using purchasing records of a wide variety of consumer goods. They will track you to optimize their manipulative, targeted advertising whether you have an invasive app or not.
troyvit today at 9:04 PM
Somebody on HN recommended drip awhile ago:

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.drip/

It's not mentioned in the article.

Like Euki it's local-only. I don't know how they compare as far as features but it's cool that there are two good apps out there.

Cider9986 today at 9:43 PM
List of recommended ones: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/health-and-wellness/#menstr...

>Drip, Euki, and Apple Health

chambored today at 10:18 PM
As others in the thread have pointed out, Euki is a wonderful application and having interacted with members of their team, I know they are committed to maintaining their liberating privacy stances.
annzabelle today at 9:35 PM
I use Macrofactor (macro tracking app for lifters with good privacy/UI) as a weight/period tracker, and occasional macro tracker. I don't think anybody is going to go to the effort to hack their databases to find the 100 women tracking our periods on it.

The one downside is that they do days since last period as days since the end of your last period, not days since the start, unlike literally every woman and gynecologist ever.

starefossen today at 8:53 PM
Apple Health was not among the reviewed?
bell-cot today at 8:47 PM
Only one (of the six reviewed) that I'd call acceptable -

> Euki is the only app Mozilla recommends without reservations. "Euki is special," Wodinsky* says.

> Unlike the other apps on this list, Mozilla says Euki keeps all your health information stored on your device, without even sending it to the company's servers.

> You don't even need to make an account, so you can stay completely anonymous. Euki also offers a "decoy" feature that shows fake, harmless information if someone gets your phone and tries to snoop.

*Shoshana Wodinsky, a privacy research analyst who tested 6 period tracker on behalf of the Mozilla Foundation

soumyadeb today at 9:29 PM
RudderStack founder here.

Although the article doesn't accuse us of doing anything improper, we weren't contacted for comment, so I'd like to clarify our role.

We are customer data infrastructure, not a data broker. We do not buy, sell or monetize the customer data that passes through our systems.

Our role is analogous to infrastructure: customers choose what data to send, and RudderStack routes that data to the destinations they configure (analytics tools, data warehouses, marketing platforms, etc.). The customer owns the data and decides where it goes; RudderStack does not repurpose it for its own business.

Infrastructure providers like us should be held to high standards for security and privacy, but we should not be confused with companies that collect or monetize end-user data.

deleted today at 9:03 PM