There are downsides with downloading their app just to input bad data, but it’s a fun thought.
edit: While we’re at it we might as well offer an alternative app to people.
I posted in !opensource@programming.dev to collect recommendations for better apps
The post: https://lemmy.ca/post/32877620
Leading Recommendation from the comments
The leading recommendation seems to be Drip (bloodyhealth.gitlab.io)
Summarizing what people shared:
- accessible: it is on F-droid, Google Play, & iOS App Store
- does not allow any third-party tracking
- the project got support from “PrototypeFund & Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Superrr Lab and Mozilla”
- Listed features:
- “Your data, your choice: Everything you enter stays on your device”
- “Not another cute, pink app: drip is designed with gender inclusivity in mind.”
- “Your body is not a black box: drip is transparent in its calculations and encourages you to think for yourself.”
- “Track what you like: Just your period, or detect your fertility using the symptothermal method.”
Their Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@dripapp
Menstrual cycles are so last millennium, I was told there would be menstrual hovercraft by now.
Fellas, fellas! I’m preggers! 🥳
I fear it might not last the weekend tho.
Finally, now these zesty, emotional, chuds have an excuse for their emotional behavior.
I don’t want to victim blame but if using an app is optional and it could get you in trouble with the law (regardless of how bad the law is), you should not use it.
Having said that, as a dev, please pollute data as much as possible.
Management needs to learn how valuable good data is and good data comes with proper consent (most people wouldn’t share their data if they could opt out).
Legit only comment so far to not just say “PAPER EXISTS1!1!1!1!” So props for that.
Can I ask how polluting the data will help? Most apps that don’t care about privacy can probably identify people with zero issues. I bet people are giving these apps location data etc.
I don’t know what you mean by good data comes with proper consent. Like, ideally all data was offered with proper consent, but how does that make data better or worse? If anything, data given without consent is likely to be more wholistic/unedited since they were not given time to redact/remove info. If someone stole my phone and took all my data, they would have “better data” than had I been informed this would happen and given time to wipe my phone.
Can I ask how polluting the data will help?
It makes data less reliable.
How do we know if a certain profile is genuine vs someone dicking around. Or mostly genuine and the person didn’t do some malicious compliance for certain parts of the app they don’t care about.
If it becomes a social trend and someone gets caught, it would be easier to say they lied cause they wanted to do a tick tock challenge.
I don’t know what you mean by good data comes with proper consent.
When someone wants to help the data collectors then they would do more proper hygiene to their profile, keep things up to date and give honest feedback. Whereas someone like me never gives consent for data without being forced, so I always try to give as little and lie as much as I can.
I guess the assumption I made was that practically everyone knows apps and websites track them in some shape or form (even the least tech savvy person knows websites get total amount of visits), so “acting like no one is tracking you” isn’t ever true to begin with. Especially given this context for a period tracking app.
Appreciate the reply. I guess I see how conceptually that makes sense, but in practice I don’t see it helping someone actually accused of anything. If a woman in a red state is brought up on charges and her app data backs that up and the excuse given is “I was lying when I added that I was pregnant” I don’t see that really making a difference. I guess it technically makes it more plausible, but I’m not sure it’s moving the needle as much as would be needed in that case.
If my doc asked me what my diet was like I would try to give accurate info but if I needed to input my latest meal every time I sent a text, my phone would think I only ate ice cream. I guess I struggle to think of an app where I would give accurate data if given the option so I just assumed people would lie if asked honestly for it. I still am not sure most apps would do better if they were more transparent, but that probably speaks more to the scamminess and predatory nature of apps than anything else. There would be more paid only apps for sure.
Period tracking is a very good tool for understanding your health. Issues may be spotted very early in some cases.
If it’s required for preventative healthcare, the blame is solely on the exploitative app operators for any data safety concerns.
it’s quite silly imo. unlikely to accomplish much or anything at all. teaching people about free software like drip is way more likely to actually help people. it’s free, open source, and completely local.
edit: they even have a mastodon!
Not to mention that downloading that flow app will help them boost thier numbers, I doubt they’d care if men are using it as long as they can sell the data…
Drip seems to be the leading recommendation. I’ve edited the post with it so people seeing the meme also get the recommendation :)
awesome, thanks!
Calling an app that tracks menstrual cycle “Drip” is peak comedy
So I just installed this right now after seeing this, and man this app has a lengthy initial startup process with dark patterns and everything. Now apparently I’m ovulating in two days. 🤭
I’m “abnormal” 🫨
So it’s not normal to have a 55 day cycle? Oh snap!
Is it FOSS? Or does it collect tons of data?
Oop, read the post better. Nevermind hahaha
I’m so sorry ladies, but you had me until the Ts & Cs. This app is a privacy nightmare. I would put all of this energy into finding or crowd funding a better alternative.
people will do anything but search for an alternative
…how do you mean?
Obviously we’re not going to get everyone to download a FOSS period tracker, as nice as that would be – they’re already invested in the ones they’re using, and no doubt it will have features and usability improvements the FOSS one doesn’t, usually thanks to some network service that is fundamentally incompatible with the FOSS philosophy. That’s almost always how these things go.
We should definitely be telling more people about F-Droid, but let’s not get our hopes up. Socialism is about protecting everyone, even people who don’t share your views, even if those views are objectively correct.
We should definitely be telling more people about F-Droid, but let’s not get our hopes up
Accessibility (not being on FDroid only) was one of the things I was looking for when looking for recommendations. Thankfully the leading recommendation is on Google Play & iOS App Store :) I have edited the post above with more details
“Socialism is about leading horses to water whether they fucking drink or not.”
I mean… yes. More horses will drink if they know there is water, and even if they don’t, they’re still safer than they otherwise would have been.
I mean, they dont like the APP because it collects data, but refuse to do one web search for an app that doesn’t, then complain on fucking twitter about privacy concerns??? seriously??
Post text:
Dear men I need you to go download an app called “Flo” and start using it chaotically. Don’t ask anyone how to use it. Just use it. The more, the better. Let’s Christmas tree that data.
As a software developer who loves to screw the data and a person who will do ANYTHING can to protect women for the next 4 years, I am so excited to begin tracking my manstrual cycle
Good bot
What’s the point of spamming one specific menstrual tracker / women’s health app? Lack of better hobbies? Or is there some controversy around the company behind it? Or just general state of freedom and surveillance in the USA?
Fuck it, download all of them.
There was an IT Crowd episode on the Manstrual Cycle
Oh that’s what I was remembering! Aunt Irma
This is the scummiest app I’ve ever downloaded.
Can you elaborate? my wife uses it, I told her about Drip and other opensource alternatives but I don’t know where “scummiest” comes from
Well, it depends on what you want out of it and, to be fair, i am not a period-haver.
That being said there is so, so much tracking it is doing to give you data and recommendations. While getting started it felt positively gross the amount fo personal questions it was asking. Why is all that necessary? Again, it depends if you want whatever information it is giving you.
But, even on top of that, wasn’t it proven that the app was selling data to interested parties to be used for nedarious reasons? That’s why we’re even doing this whole men-should-sign-up-to-feed-it-bullshit-and-ruin-the-data in the first place.
Even though, as another user said: it likely wouldnt actually do anything.While getting started it felt positively gross the amount fo personal questions it was asking. Why is all that necessary?
Hi. Occasional period haver here. With all due respect, it’s possible that since the context is the menstrual cycle, questions that seem irrelevant to you (as a not-period-haver) might actually be important for the typical end user (period-havers.) Things like age, weight, diet, activity level, and more can all play a role in how someone’s period affects them. But I have no plans to download this, or any other tracker app, so I can’t independently determine the extent to which that’s the case.
Could anyone who signed up provide some specific question examples?
You really think that i think medical questions and questions about your sexual activity are irrelevant?
No, but i think people shouldn’t be giving that data away. I even clarified that i think it’s gross but it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.
If we go by the wikipedia page, no, apparently they never did sell data to third parties, although there were allegations at some point. But perhaps wikipedia isn’t the most reliable on this particular subject or is out of date
(Edit: Replied to the wrong post. Sorry!)
Done. If only I could script it…
I have several old Android phones sitting in a drawer. They’ve just been given a glorious purpose.
Multiple users ☺️ on each.
The Shelter app (on F-droid) gives you simple access to Android work profiles, allowing you to install multiple copies of apps.
Isn’t it built in now? I have that natively.
To be honest, I don’t completely know. I never used work profiles before Shelter, so I’m not 100% sure.
Shelter uses the Work Profile. With android 15 you can enable Private Space, which is about the same, for a third instance of an app. Work profile requires an app that manages it like Shelter, private space just works.
AfaIk, Shelter is using the built in work profile of Android, as not every UI/ vendor has made it available to the users. (There is no visible button or option in the settings menu.)
E.g. Samsung smartphones have a “work mode”, but the last time I’ve used it (It may be different in current models), it only allowed for second accounts of selected apps like WhatsApp and hence, was a crippled implentation of the Android feature. My Android 11 Samsung tablet has complete multi user support, not only “work mode”.
