VANCOUVER - A British Columbia Supreme Court judge says a class-action lawsuit can move forward over alleged privacy breaches against a company that made an app to track users’ menstrual and fertility cycles. The ruling published online Friday says the action against Flo Health Inc. alleges the company shared users’ highly personal health information with third-parties, including Facebook, Google and other companies.
free, open source, everything stored locally: https://dripapp.org/
Of all the things you most certainly do not need to upload to the cloud…
I mean cloud apps are popular because they are convenient. It’s just a shame that they are invariably infested with toxic capitalism. And now apparently Christian fascists.
Periodical is no wifi, no bs and stored locally on your phone storage. Also is about 5mb in size so pretty minimal. If anyone is interested here’s the link https://f-droid.org/packages/de.arnowelzel.android.periodical/
Result: “sorry we shared your personal data, here’s a check for 38 cents. “
I remember back in my teenage days, I tried to track some menstruations. It didn’t end well.
Classic mistake. You weren’t rich enough.
Damn man, my gf pays for this app. That’s how we track her days. Corpos even know when we’re probably having sex now D:.
Even your car might know.
For those that aren’t aware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYcmF9IAJbU
TL;DW: The Nissan privacy policy
statesstated that they can collect and store information about your sexual activity for some reason.Note: the page seems to have been updated to remove that wording, but you can see it archived on the Way Back Machine from when the video was released.
Edit: spelling
Come on, it is the 21st century.
Nobody should assume any other reason to create such an app than to harvest and sell personal medical data.
Here are some privacy focused alternatives (only for android 😕): https://pluja.github.io/awesome-privacy/#menstrual-cycle-trackers
I wrote a period tracker app that also encrypts/password protects the data at rest. If you’re concerned about someone taking your phone and accessing your data, it may also be worth a look.~~https://github.com/cameroncros/PrivatePeriodTracker~~
~~https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cross.privateperiodtracker~~
Drip looks better for most people though. But they should add encryption if they dont already have it.Use drip.
Encryption and password protection is in the changelog for drips first version v0.0.1 - 5 years ago
I couldnt find your app on fdroid btw
Huh, thats good. I scanned their website for mentions of encryption and didnt find it.
Mine isnt on fdroid, wasnt worth the effort. May as well remove from Google Play as well tbh, Drips seems all round a better option.
Yep it was a struggle to find. I checked website, issues and then finally made a last attempt at the change logs. It should be advertised more for that added piece of mind.
I didnt mean to shoot your app down by the way, in case it came across that way. Ive never used these apps
Thanks for developing your version though. People like you make this community what it is :)
I’ve never used my app either, I lack the prerequisites :D I wrote it for my partner last time there was a thing about US cops going after the data. But I dont maintain it, so drips is the better option in general.
When drips gets caught selling data I’ll revive my app :D
That’s f’ed up.
Man, sometimes I feel like we’ve lost our spirit. I’m hopeful we can get it back, but these articles tell a different story. I hope for better days.
Your comment sounds AI generated lmao
There’s not a word in this article about why this breach of privacy matters while others do not. It’s not stated whether this was in the terms of service for the app, and whether those terms were ruled against.
All kinds of apps have been selling personal information for a long time, and it’s been ruled before that it’s allowed if they have the proper legalese in the terms of service. Did this app just not have any terms of service?
Why is it a breach of privacy for this app, but other apps doing the same selling of personal data is not?
Why is it a breach of privacy for this app, but other apps doing the same selling of personal data is not?
From the article…
The lawsuit alleges that Flo Health misused users’ personal information “for its own financial gain,” claiming breach of privacy, breach of confidence and “intrusion upon seclusion.”
IANAL, but my understanding, after having read the whole article, is that regardless of the fact that there may or may not have been an agreement between the app creator and its users, that they still ran foul of laws that cannot be waived by any sort of TOU/EULA agreement.
I read the article too, and those things you quoted sound to me like things every app does.
Hence my question: what is different here?
regardless of the fact that there may or may not have been an agreement between the app creator and its users, that they still ran foul of laws that cannot be waived by any sort of TOU/EULA agreement.
It’s not a matter of something being different or not. It’s no matter what, it’s illegal. Law trumps any TOU/EULA.
So what are they doing that illegal that other apps aren’t doing??
I really don’t know how to be any more clear with this question.
So what are they doing that illegal that other apps aren’t doing??
I really don’t know how to be any more clear with this question.
From the article…
The lawsuit alleges that Flo Health misused users’ personal information “for its own financial gain,” claiming breach of privacy, breach of confidence and “intrusion upon seclusion.”
Why the fuck would you ever enter that kind of information into your phone? Did they ever make any promises about it all being end-to-end encrypted?
Are the owners of the app based in a privacy friendly country? What kind of things do they require for passwords?
Worse than betterhelp right there. people that use services like those are fucking sheep.
Periods are awful to keep track of yourself, it’s not a perfect, “every 4 weeks for 5 days” thing. Those apps actually recalculate the beginning and end of a period when something abnormal happens, like stress moving the period back a few days. This way you don’t need to keep it in a personal calendar, which mind you, a lot of people don’t even have.
Btw, most apps do also more than just regular tracking, they can predict how bad blood flow will be, and if your periods are known to be rather painful, they can keep track and remind you when a day comes on which you’d need to pack a few extra painkillers.
Hard to argue with any of those points. Nice of you to kindly elaborate for people trying to blame the victims of the scheme.
This way you don’t need to keep it in a personal calendar, which mind you, a lot of people don’t even have.
proton unlimited, proton calendar. Completely private and end-to-end encrypted.
But okay, I guess these apps can be helpful. I still think it’s a terrible idea to enter information like that into an app that doesn’t guarantee privacy. That’s sensitive medical data. I don’t give a fuck what any ToS says, no one except you should have the power to give away that kind of information about yourself.
I’ll check my subscription but Im pretty sure Proton doesn’t calculate when I ovulate.
Maybe you could direct your righteous anger at the people misselling the app, not the people who use it to help them get pregnant or to avoid becoming pregnant in a proto-fascist society that has removed their right to an abortion?
Right?? Like what is this rage against the users?!
