- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
The team behind menstrual health and period tracking app Clue has said it will not disclose users’ data to American authorities, following Donald Trump’s reelection.
The message comes in response to concerns that during Trump’s second presidency, abortion bans that followed the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 will worsen and states will attempt to increase menstrual surveillance in order to further restrict access to terminations.
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Newsweek has reached out to Clue, the Trump campaign and Youngkin for comment via email.
I wouldn’t trust it. We now live in an era where, if you want control of any kind of information, you simply can’t share it digitally in any way.
Hey government perverts. Keep out of panties that are not on your own ass or your partner’s. And ask before you dive in. You’re disgusting!
Drip is also available on F-droid.
Haha that is some app name!
It’s the app the comment above me was recommending. I just wanted to make that clear and show that it was available outside the app stores as well.
Period tracking apps should store no data at all in the cloud.
Some people want convenience of accessing the data between devices.
It’s okay to store stuff in the cloud just make it’s encrypted deeply and thoroughly and that the user is the only person with the key.
There’s absolutely no reason for them to have access to this data.
Yup. I use Tuta for email, and they have a calendar feature that should be more than sufficient. Just set a recurring event for 28 days or whatever your personal cycle is, and you’re good to go! Everything is E2EE, so there’s nothing for the authorities to get.
I’m sure Proton Mail’s calendar feature is equally sufficient here, or you could self-host something like NextCloud and use the calendar that way.
It’s not about having a rigid schedule, but about actually tracking periods and analyzing the data. I’m male and that’s about all I know about it
Eh, a calendar and a spreadsheet should be enough, but I also don’t have menstrual cycles, so what do I know…
I tend to get headaches more frequently at a certain point in my ~monthly cycle, not at the same time I have my period. It’s nice to know it’s coming so I can plan accordingly. Like avoid being on a road trip at that time, or proactively knocking it out with meds before it even starts.
Some people find their cycles affect their energy and recovery a lot, so they adjust their workout plans accordingly. Like knowing when within a cycle estrogen and testosterone are at their peak, versus progesterone.
Aside from just day count between periods, some people track temp, consistency of vaginal fluid, mood, weight, and probably other things depending on their needs.
I’d imagine it’s the same as personal finance apps. A spreadsheet can be enough, and it is enough for a lot of people, but a custom app can make things easier:
- reducing the friction of keeping track
- built in visualizations
- alerts
- integrating the data with other tools
etc.
You actually have your period the same time everytime like in a textbook? That’s sounds pretty nice, first time I heard someone has that. Usually it’s pretty random, like sometimes it’s 20 days sometimes it’s 35 and you have to calculate it with the daily temperature. I’m kinda jealous ngl
I’m a male, but I am married to someone who has periods. And yeah, they’re not textbook, but they’re generally within a couple days. We can both tell when it’s about to happen because my SO’s hormones start going crazy (alternate between angry over small things and affectionate), and like clockwork, the menstrual cycle happens about 2 days later.
But yeah, it’s generally about every 4 weeks, give or take a few days. It used to be all over the place, but now that she’s been better about exercise and diet, it’s a lot more consistent.
Oh that sounds really nice, in that case you really don’t need to use a period app. I have to enter my temperature, cervix condition and (I don’t know the English word for it but you know,) the ‘slime’ condition. Sometimes it’s 6 weeks, sometimes it’s 3, the app helps a lot but sometimes it’s still off.
Apparently the English word is discharge
But how will they make their money mate?
no cloud or get fossed, son.
Seriously how some business makes money doesn’t matter in the context of state surveillance
Is there an open source period tracker that you have contributed to?
There are calendar apps, which should get the job done, assuming your menstrual cycle is pretty regular.
Why would you assume the cycle is regular? It’s a biological process that can vary quite a bit, which is part of why you would want to track it in the first place. There’s also much more to track that just the expected start date of your next cycle. The various tracking apps are quite a bit more involved than just a calendar.
Yeah, I know they’re not necessarily regular, seeing as I’m married to someone with menstrual cycles. I guess I’m just not very familiar with what kind of data a calendar and a spreadsheet can’t solve just as easily.
Actually I’ll agree with you that a spreadsheet could do a lot, but that’s a niche solution. Building a good one requires a fair bit of technical know how, and even using one well requires a lot of understanding.
Can’t those app offer this feature : replace all the original data by pseudo random data shifting the menstruation cycle in a way that would benefit the user at that moment ? Or : shift all data to x days (easier to undo)
It’s crazy that we live in a world where we have to think about such things…
Yeah they may not cooperate with authorities, but I’m sure they’d be happy to sell it to contractors working on behalf of the government to the same ends. They already sell the info as it is.
They say that, but when Ken Paxton subpoenas them they will say they have no choice. It would be better to use an app that doesn’t store this data server side at all.
FOSS Period Tracking Apps Exist: (there may be others, as well)
https://fossdroid.com/a/bluemoon.html
https://fossdroid.com/a/mensinator.html
https://github.com/TotallyMonica/foss-period-tracker
Also paper and pencil.
Also the oldest known “writing” is a stick with 28 notches on it.
source on the 28 notch stick?
It was some time ago that I read of that, so the details are fuzzy. And here’s what I found:
https://nypost.com/2019/07/25/10000-year-old-engraved-stone-could-be-worlds-oldest-lunar-calendar/
“A 10,000-year-old engraved stone could be a lunar calendar. The rare pebble — found high up in the mountains near Rome, Italy, the hammer-stone was found on top of Monte Alta in the Alban Hills. It’s believed that our early ancestors would’ve used the stone to keep track of the moon’s cycles. Notches were engraved “as if they were being used to count, calculate or store the record of some kind of information. And these notches — which total either 27 or 28 — suggest the stone’s engraver used the pebble to track lunar cycles.” ref
It could also have been The Ishango Bone (https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-ishango-bone-the-worlds-oldest-period-tracker/)
How does an app being FOSS defend them from warrants?
It doesn’t, but with these apps, you can see what information they send back to their servers (if any). If there is no info getting sent back to any servers, then there’s nothing a subpoena can do since there’s no info to subpoena. You can’t obtain info that just isn’t there.
That makes sense. Thank you!
Something being FOSS doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe / ethical, but a LOT of FOSS apps are designed with those principles in mind.
However, being FOSS means that if an app claims that it is safe / ethical (ex. In this case, not storing data anywhere but on your device), you or an experienced peer can check the code to verify that fact.
FOSS implies it’s your hardware, therefore a subpoena would extract no information because there is no information outside of the users device.
Interesting, thank you. I guess I don’t know enough about FOSS then.
“Free and open source software.” It’s an ethos that says that code should be free and open for people to use and improve as they see fit. The core of it is that if you modify any software that is FOSS, your software must also be FOSS. So overtime the software and what its used for improve, change, widen. Lucky for us, the movement has been ongoing for 50+ years, so it’s a mature ethos whose benefits are everywhere. Most of the internet runs on FOSS. Lemmy itself is FOSS.
It doesn’t necessarily mean an app is more private, but it does mean you can generally self host, as the commentor said. There isn’t a profit motive with most FOSS, at least not at its core, so there is little desire to data harvest generally. There is also a heavy overlap between FOSS advocates and privacy advocates, so they tend to be more privacy conscious via local data storage or encryption.
Just to key in on the overlap between FOSS and privacy, because the source code for the software is open, it means that anyone can take a peek at how everything is running under the hood (among other things). It becomes possible to verify that software is storing data locally and properly encrypting when applicable (as opposed to blindly trusting the software’s author and or lawyers).
It may also be a fun fact that best practice in encryption is to open source your algorithms. The helps safeguard against backdoors and mistakes/ errors that could compromise the security of the algorithm. Much for similar reasons as above, as it allows the security community to check your math (in a field where it is incredibly easy to get your math wrong).
Ok yeah, I understood everything in your first paragraph. The privacy part was what I was really asking about. So if you’re not self hosting you’re still at the whim of the person/company/whatever that is.
You could also argue that if even if you’re not self-hosting (i.e. renting server hardware from a 3rd party), your data is still in a siloed environment. While it may be accessible by law enforcement if you are targeted specifically, it’s unlikely to be dragnetted like the data collected from popular apps.
Simple. Most FOSS are built for privacy and thus do not harvest data to send to some server somewhere in the world for whatever obscure reason. The data is locally stored on your device and stays and dies there.
No callback, no selling nor surrending data.
Personally speaking, I’d quicker have all data banks destroyed than surrendered to whatever purposes, if I ever decided to build an aplication that somehow compiled data.
Newsweek has really trash headlines. No one’s asking, yet, so that’s a terrible headline.
(Yes I voted Kamala, and yes I did it for medical autonomy reasons as well as orange potato reasons, Vance reasons, heritage foundation reasons, and Project 2025.)
It’s still a trash headline and pretty standard fare for Newsweek. Why is it trash? Because it’s classic The Boy Who Cried Wolf. When I read this headline, I need it to be real.
Good news but kind of bad that they say this publicly.
The pro of showing support for reproductive rights, building trust and protecting user privacy is great for publicity but I am afraid the downsides will eventually lead to legal consquences, making the whole thing seen even more political than it already is and that it might have a huge impact on their business.
The last thing might sound stupid, but it’s a business. And if you have crazy woman who will not use this because they support the ban on abortions the sells will go down in for example republican states making the company MORE VULNERABLE to changing how they think about sharing data to authorities or not.
And yes america has woman who totally want the government to be in control of their bodies LOL. And yes america has many people who can’t even figure out the name of bordering states. States, not countries. Ask 10 americans and only 5 will know that Canada is directly above (North) of america and Mexico South.
You have Burger King removing the 1/3 pounder Burger because people thought it’s less than a 1/4 pounder Burger cause 4 is higher than 3 making Burger King have less sells on the 1/3 Pounder than the 1/4 LOL.
Sometimes not talking about specific topics is “more” than even speaking about it. Just don’t share data and say nothing, they won’t ask. Most maga’s trumpers won’t ask if you don’t give them a foundation to poop on.
This isn’t a company that has a great track record. They are saying this now when Trump is powerless as a form of advertisement. When up against a legal wall and at risk of losing advertisers or going out of business, they too will cave. In this era you get to say whatever you want right now and you don’t even need to apologize when you renig on it tomorrow.
You have Burger King removing the 1/3 pounder Burger because people thought it’s less than a 1/4 pounder Burger cause 4 is higher than 3 making Burger King have less sells on the 1/3 Pounder than the 1/4 LOL.
BRB, going to sell 1/8 lb burgers to take advantage of dumb Americans
About time they went metric
/s
Not even joking, it would probably work. Assuming you had some sort of brand recognition already.
My bad :-)
Why cant ladies just use their password manager and keep a log?
Because 99% of ladies, and gentlemen, don’t use password managers.
They just remember that shit?
It’s easy when you use the same password for encoding everything.
They remember the one password that they use for everything.
My wife uses a spreadsheet and connected it to her calendar. Seems pretty accurate.
It is a modified version of this:
That will last only until a judge signs a warrant.
Or until Trump decides to have an army of hackers like Putin.
We already do. We wage cyber warfare with other countries the same.
Were people unclear on this? They think that the US is just letting cyber warfare happen without participating…?
Or until the American people get bored with talking about it, like with everything else, then stop caring and just let whatever happen.
That is some darkest timeline Abed type stuff.
