Period tracking app refuses to disclose data to American authorities
Period tracking app refuses to disclose data to American authorities
Clue vows to safeguard users following the 2024 election amid concerns anti-abortion state laws could allow phone searches for menstrual data.
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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Research conducted by the Mozilla Foundation indicates that the app referred to in the article, Clue, gathers extensive information and shares certain data with third parties for advertising, marketing, and research reasons.
Here are some menstruation tracking apps that are open-source and prioritize user privacy by keeping your data stored locally on your device:
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So the government just needs to acquire this data from one of those third parties if it wants it.
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The only way to protect data is to not gather it.
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Having your own data can be incredibly useful and valuable, the trick is protecting that data so that nefarious actors can't use it.
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Sure, but tracking period data can be very helpful for people. For a threat model of abortion criminalisation (or maybe trans healthcare criminalisation with treatments stopping periods, or really any kind of restrictions on medical autonomy), encryption at rest of locally stored period data is perfectly sufficient. They are not going to send military intelligence agencies after a random person having an abortion. It is actually a relatively low threat model, like equivalent to buying drugs online or something like that.
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False
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I hadn't seen this comment, thanks for making it.
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The apps I wanted to share
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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.
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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.
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Don't fall for it. Read their privacy policy.
They keep your data in the cloud and share it with third parties, including advertisers.
Pen and paper doesn't snitch.
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not defending the bogus use of the cloud to host sensitive data, nor do i unquestioningly believe this? but correcting the record since you did 80% of the work in finding the link:
Be assured that the sensitive health data you track in the Clue app is never shared with or sold to advertisers, or any partners whose services we may recommend in Clue.
If you actually read what you sent it seems like the only data that is shared to advertisers is standard marketing stuff like IP, device ID, age group, and location. Still bad and I stand with others recommending locally hosted FOSS alternatives.
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Period tracking apps should store no data at all in the cloud.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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That will last only until a judge signs a warrant.
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Why the hell period data needs to be stored on the cloud?
How much could it weight? A few Kb? Local storage!
I would never trust such data leaving my device when is no need for it whatsoever.
Aren't there any open source period tracking apps? I'll do one, it can't be that hard. An sqlite database patched to a frontend calendar and some basic predictions based on normal scenarios.
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Aren’t there any open source period tracking apps?
Many. On F-Droid.
drip. menstrual cycle and fertility tracking (Open-source, non-commercial and leaves your data on your phone.) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.drip/
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Drip is also available on F-droid.
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Cool but the proper solution is that they shouldn't have access to this data at all. It should be either stored locally, or encrypted on their servers. Companies not being able to access their consumer data should be the default.
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Why do they need to save the tracked period data to a server farm? Why can't it just be saved on the phone, huh?
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Probably because they want to be able to maintain users during device switches. Given much of the world is on an annual or bi-annual cycle it'd suck to lose your users each time.
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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.
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This kind of surveillance should be something every platform fights against. Remember that the government does not own you and they are only entitled to any of your data at all when necessary to uphold the law and under a warrant. Protect your right to privacy or they will use what you do I private to justify stripping you of all your other rights in the name of justice they will at that point no longer uphold.
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Every corporation registered under the US law is subject to the US law.
If you relying on a corpo to protect your data.... 🤡
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menstrual surveillance
Now that's a phrase I would've never thought I would read.
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Why? It’s a logical outcome of the combination of mass surveillance and draconian anti abortion laws. This is the sort of shit the judicial construction of the implied right to privacy was kinda built around stopping. This is just straight up the sort of shit Snowden warned us of.
So yeah, the federal government (and likely state as well), who have the data from your personal devices to understand far more of your sex life than you want your friends knowing, much less your Senator, are able to purchase or subpoena data from menstrual tracking apps and will do as the law tells them to. The law, meanwhile is written by a group of people who are vastly disproportionately elderly men with little to know understanding of any branch of science or medicine. A group notable for comments like the assumption that ecoptic pregnancies can be replanted and that presenting a snowball disproves global warming. The one gynecologist of note to have been in Congress in recent memory being Ron fucking Paul, who incidentally was anti choice.
To sum my previous paragraph to a thesis statement: people who have no idea how bodies work and couldn’t tell a Skene’s gland from a vas deferens and disproportionately think pee comes out the vagina get to decide the rules by which people who know every aspect of your life that they choose to look for decide if your menstrual irregularities are normal or an illegal abortion.
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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…
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First I thought "WTF is period data a thing that should concern the government", but then I noticed we are talking about the future Handmaids Tale country here.
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Still not worth the risk to download it. Get a paper journal, they make ones that guide you through tracking all the necessary data.
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Paper without some sort of code to hide what's happening isn't much better, considering if something ever happens you could get searched.
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Sure I guess but you can also just leave it at home.
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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.
The hilarious thing though is that most abortions are done in California, but only because of abortion tourism (example from Texas). A typicall trumper will now claim this is wrong and say democrats love abortions... This is so sad.
I am neither republican nor democrat, I am german and don't live in that country but we have trumpers too so don't worry and hang in there.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My wife uses a spreadsheet and connected it to her calendar. Seems pretty accurate.
It is a modified version of this:
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Hmm, would there be a place for a e2e encrypted menstrual tracking app? I made such an app for tracking baby activities, menstrual calendar sounds much easier.
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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!
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Shit which reminds me. Now I have to stop using the app… and delete it.
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I don’t know if they’re already doing this, but they need to find ways to make security so robust that it is architecturally impossible for the business to handover useful data.
And here’s hoping courts continue to allow people to plead the 5th and not fork over passwords. If that protection falls, I don’t know how you’d design a digital workaround that would keep people out of contempt of court charges.
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They could do it by not uploading any of the data, or if they do, uploading it encrypted with the only key being on the user's device or a passcode.
Both are well established ways to secure data, but the company itself would not be able to interact with the data at all past storing it, so any features/revenue there would end.
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You can already be compelled to give up biometric data like fingerprint to unlock your phone, I believe. I give it less than a year before SCOTUS extends that to PINs. And yes, I am sure they will find ways to get it out of people. Or if not, at least they tortured you, and that's what they really wanted.
Assuming we have anything resembling rule of law at that point.
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That is some darkest timeline Abed type stuff.
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For now
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Not a choice they can make, if they have the data then the government can compel them to turn it over
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I don't know much about menstrual cycles. Wouldn't it be easier and just as effective to track with pen and paper?
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nah. Think about how good computers are at pattern recognition and long term storage for analysis. Far superior to a pen and paper
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I laid awake last night thinking if it would be possible to make an elaborate Excel spreadsheet to accomplish this. I need to research more about the specifics of menstrual cycles, but I think it wouldn't take that much effort. It could be disguised as something else and shared freely, and people could store it locally to ensure privacy.
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The main service my period tracker provides is a notification telling me "hey, it's PMS time. If you're emo it's ok, it's probably just hormones and not the real end of the world. You're also likely to hyperfixate on something. Pull out your knitting a fixate on that, instead of risking fixating on something someone said off-handedly a decade ago that now makes you cry".
(The message is user-configurable. Mine doesn't say that verbatum, but that's the gist.)
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Newsweek has reached out to Clue, the Trump campaign and Youngkin for comment via email.