Developers Abandon Facebook Analytics
There is good news, however: Neither Maya nor MIA transmits information to Facebook anymore. The researchers contacted the apps developers, who quickly removed the Facebook Analytics tool, which was responsible for sending the data. True, both apps still use CleverTap and AppsFlyer.
So it turns out that there was no real need to transfer the data to Facebook the developers had simply integrated an additional analytics system without ever considering what data would go where.
Mayas creators say third parties do not have access to the information on CleverTaps servers. The platforms developers state that the solution is in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation , and that its analytical algorithms process anonymized pools of data. If that is indeed the case, then the threat to privacy from this app can now be considered minimal.
The situation with MIA, which serves AppsFlyer analytics, is more nuanced. In response to the researchers inquiry, the company said that it prohibits clients from harvesting users intimately personal data, including health information. AppsFlyer claims to have contacted the developers of the MIA app for them to review their approach to analytics. But as the researchers note, AppsFlyer is rather hazy about what data it believes it should collect from apps that work specifically with health information.
I Couldn’t Contain My Emotion Says Woman Who Waited For 2 Days To See Queen Elizabeth Ii Lying In State
A woman who waited for two days to pay her respects to Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall said she became emotional as she passed by the late monarch’s coffin.
“It’s really, really emotional. It’s so sad. It reminds me of when my mom died in Ghana, and all the family has to go around and then pay our respects and say farewell to her. I couldn’t contain my emotion. Emotion is something natural. You can’t think, it has to come out. … I was choked up and had to cry,” Grace told CNN’s Bianca Nobilo.
Grace said that all the chairs have been taken away in Westminster Hall and mourners are in a single line to file past the Queen’s coffin.
“I was sad, just so sad not to see her again,” she said.
We Can Share Our Menstrual Cycle Data With Others On An App Should We
People who keep tabs on their menstruation with Clue, a popular period-tracking app, can now share information about their cycles with anyone else whos downloaded the app. The company is marketing it as a way to better communicate with sexual partners, bond with friends, and help young girls get a handle on their changing bodies.
Clue says cycle-sharing is the most requested feature since we initially launched Clue back in 2013. A user can choose to share a certain set of datacurrent and predicted days when shes most fertile, menstruating, or experiencing PMSwith another user, wholl see it represented with colored stripes in a setup that looks something like Google Calendar. The app allows users to track all kinds of other things, such as sex and consistency of stool or cervical fluid, but none of that stuff goes through to other users. A user can end the connection at any time.
Clue
Some of Clues suggested reasons for sharing cycle data seem far-fetched. People dont usually have to buy new pads or tampons every cycle, so pre-empting a loved ones needs might land her with redundant supplies or the wrong kind. A partner buying painkillers as a surprise pre-PMS gift sounds creepy. And its difficult to imagine this proposed scenario between a mother and a daughter working out as planned: Connecting with your child through Clue allows them to see your cycle, which gives them the context to understand changes their own body is going through.
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A Bonus: Relationship Real Talk
Non-getting-busy intel is a part of the package, too, including date-night suggestions and general life-coaching. Let’s just say the app eliminated the need for us to have exchanges that involved the phrase: “If you just tell me what you need, I’ll do it.”
For example, here’s an excerpt from one of the emails it sent my boyfriend when I was ovulating: “The verbal center of her brain is positively affected by all the increase in estrogen, so its the perfect time to get out and be social with friends, as well as an ideal time to talk to each other about things that are important to your relationships growth.”
The hormonal how-to’s did inspire a real shift in consciousness.
Did we heed all of its advice? Not exactly. We’re not the type of couple who reads the instruction manual thoroughly before the shelves go up, you know?
But the hormonal how-to’s did inspire a real shift in consciousness. As Vitti often says, the 24-hour male hormonal cycle is the one the world runs on, for the most part.
“I wanted to make something that would truly elevate a woman’s relationship with her cycle, her body and give her a sense of how powerful her body isthat her hormones have never been her weakest link or liability, but that they are in fact her superpower and major reliable, predictable, asset,” she explains.
The Line To View Queen Elizabeth Ii Lying In State Is Currently 29 Miles Long And Ends Near London Bridge
From CNNs Alex Hardie in London
The end of the queue for people to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state is currently near London Bridge, according to the UK governments live tracker.
The queue is approximately 2.9 miles long , the tracker says.
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said that the government is expecting extremely large queues, that could go up to thirty hours.
She added that it wont be thirty hours for everybody but said that it was important people knew how long it could potentially take.
Donelan added that there will be more than 1,000 people per day on hand to help those in the queue, including from the Samaritans, the Red Cross, and the Metropolitan Police.
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Could Be A Little Better
I have been using the app for several months. I do like it. It has a few features that I dont like but do keep it for the features it does have. I dont like that you can spin the wheel and push the middle button and it changes the whole month. It could really cause problems if you are trying to avoid getting pregnant. I also dont like that its not intuitive to the days in your cycle from month to month. If your actual cycle is say 24 days long, even for a few months. It will still show the next cycle with however many days you originally manually put your cycles are so it is not intuitive and if you dont change it manually than the prediction of the ovulation day is off by days.
The Only App That Incorporates Cycle Syncing Method
The Cycle Syncing Method®, created by Alisa Vitti, guides you to eat, work, and live in alignment with your infradian rhythm across the different hormonal phases of your cycle. It changes the game when it comes to productivity, success, and making most of life in a female body.
This is more than a just a method, it is a movement. #CycleSyncing has garnered over 5 million impressions on social media from women sharing about how this is transforming their periods, fitness and health! Featured in VOGUE, Harpers Bazaar UK, Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated. The US womens Soccer team bases their training schedule around this method for optimal performance.
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Protect Your Data: Alternative Period Trackers
When reports started to emerge on how these apps monetize and sell user information to third parties, Kochsiek was concerned but refused to go back to the old analog way.
Instead, Kochsiek felt motivated to develop an alternative app called .dripa cycle tracker that only stores data on your device.
As with other cycle apps, .drip allows users to monitor their menstrual health and keep track of their flow and fertile days.
Period trackers track more than your cycle some commercial apps have been found to sell on sensitive data to social media platforms for advertising purposes
The difference is that users don’t have to agree to invasive practices, such as permitting an app to access their microphone or having intimate data, like sexual encounters or a week of heavy menstrual flow, stored on a company’s servers many miles away from them.
But the popularity of non-commercial trackers lags far behind bigger players like Mi Calendario Menstrual, Flo and Clue, which add up to 160 million downloads across mainstream app stores.
When To Put Down Darker Sheets
The first two days of her period are the heaviest, so if youre down for sex during that time, make sure to change out your brand new white sheets for something thatll hide potential stains. Its a good idea to have a darker set of sheets for this its a bad idea to put down the old towel you use to dry your dog.
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The 5 Best Tracking Apps For Safer Cycles
Technology is revolutionizing how we understand our bodiesand it’s really empowering.
For too long, we have relied on doctors and medications to give us the answers to our complex bodies, but there are more tools than ever to manage our own health.
In a time where society is starting to re-think alternative healthcare methods, the use of period & sex tracking apps help us to put our health back into our own hands.
These five tracking apps for women help us create an intuitive understanding of our body’s natural rhythms and educate us on our own reproductive health.
Why Companies Want So Much Personal Data
Armed with information about a users health, mood, and intimate life, ad networks, including Facebook, can more profitably sell advertisers goods and services. For example, ads targeting pregnant women specifically cost ten times as much as nontargeted ads because theyre far more likely to lead to a purchase.
Advertising is not the worst of it. Intimate health information falling into the wrong hands could affect, for example, the cost of health insurance. A potential employer who knows a job applicant is planning to get pregnant might give preference to another candidate. A pregnant woman might not even be allowed on an international flight. And you would hardly want Facebook to be privy to details you wouldnt share with your closest friend.
Mayas developers claim that all data the app requests is necessary for its operation. Thats partly true: Hormonal drugs, increased stress, and habits such as smoking can alter the menstrual cycle, and mood swings, abdominal pain, and other symptoms can indicate that menstruation is on the way. However, a significant portion of the requested information has little to no effect on the accuracy of the diagnosis.
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Trying To Conceive There’s An App For That In Fact The Fertility App Space Has Never Been Well More Fertile Check Out These 10 Fertility Period And Ovulation Trackers That Could Help You Get Pregnant
We have an app for everything now, including baby-making. If you’re TTCthat’s “trying to conceive” for the newbiesand eager to get pregnant as efficiently as possible , these apps can help you with pretty much everything you need to conceive quickly, except for, ahem, doing the deed itself. That’s on you.
So tap that App Store icon … get ready, get set, conceive!
% Of Period Tracker Apps Share Data With Third Parties
Featured image: ORCHA report on data security in period tracker apps
A research team at ORCHA, the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps, has examined the privacy policies of 25 period tracker apps and revealed significant flaws.
This follows the US Supreme Courts decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion, leaving privacy experts concerned that data from period-tracking apps could be used to penalise anyone seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
Intimate data stored in some of these apps can show details of sexual activity, contraception used, and when the users period stops and starts.
Amongst the 25 period tracker apps from 24 app developers it examined, ORCHA discovered only one single app which kept all the sensitive data on the mobile phone or device owned by the user.
The rest shared it with the app developer.
Furthermore 84% of the apps allowed the sharing of personal and sensitive health data beyond the developers system, with third parties. At 68%, the majority did so for marketing, 40% for research and 40% for improving developer services of the app itself.
Amongst those sharing data with third parties, only one single app demonstrated best practice by explicitly asking users for permission within the app itself, rather than bundling this into the Terms and Conditions, which very few people read.
Tim Andrews, COO of ORCHA, said:
Beyond sharing data with third parties, ORCHA found other data security concerns including:
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Women Delete Period Tracker Apps Over After Us Overturned Abortion Ruling
Women in the USA have recently deleted or switched period tracking apps from their smartphones due to fears that data might be harvested and used against them in potential criminal cases in states where abortion has become illegal.
Furthermore, words used to replace the word “abortion” are beginning to appear. On TikTok for instance, some now use the term “going camping” to protect their medical privacy.
It is unclear to what extent women in Europe have deleted the apps, but privacy advocates warn that sharing intimate data within apps carries risks as app providers often share sensitive data with third parties for marketing purposes.
When To Show Up With Pizza
PMS, or premenstrual syndrome, is tricky: Some researchers suggest its a cultural myth perpetuated by the idea of the hysterical woman a small percentage of women have debilitating symptoms while others experience none. But it generally refers to the emotional and physical symptoms due to dipping hormone levels many women notice in the days after ovulation and before menstruation.
Food cravings tend to play a big role in PMS, and carbs are especially popular because they increase serotonin levels. Find out what her Postmates order is and youll win major points.
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Reasons Why You Should Care About Her Menstrual Cycle
The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.
Millions of women around the country use period-tracking apps each month for various reasons. Two of the most popular apps Clue and Glow allow users to not only log when their cycle begins and ends, but also to monitor their moods, cravings, sexual activity, medication, and even … um … bowel movements. The more data shared, the smarter the app gets at predicting fertile days, stress levels, and more, which is helpful whether shes trying to get pregnant, avoid it, or just understand her body better.
Most of these apps also have another lesser-known feature: cycle sharing. When she adds you to the app, youll be able to see the exact duration of her period, ovulation, and PMS. Taking into account that info could make you a more thoughtful, understanding partner to her. Since nothing is sexier than a man taking initiative and thinking ahead, here are five things youll know to do after learning how her cycle works.
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Period Trackers Since Roe Vs Wade Was Overturned
The US Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade, a 1973 decision establishing a federal and constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, has sparked new fears about how companies use menstrual data.
“It seems as if these companies have more to gain from me tracking my menstrual cycle than what I get as an individual. The gain for their commercial business is larger,” says Julia Kloiber, co-founder of SUPERRR Lab, a feminist organization advocating for equal digital futures.
For Kloiber, non-commercial trackers pose a safer option to track periods. “It’s important that these alternatives are being developed so people have the option to switch,” Kloiber says.
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When Should You See A Doctor
While fertility tracking apps can provide useful information to make family planning and cycle tracking easier, theyre never a substitute for individualized care and advice from your OB-GYN.
You shouldnt skip annual visits, but if youre having trouble conceiving or are experiencing any unusual symptoms related to your menstrual cycle and reproductive health, you should make an appointment to see a healthcare professional as soon as possible.
What Exactly Did Facebook Get To See
In compiling the report, the researchers scrutinized two apps: Maya and MIA . The study was very straightforward: Privacy International simply looked at the outgoing traffic of the apps, which they ran in a sandbox, and analyzed the data they were transferring, including its destination. The results were interesting, to say the least.
At first launch, even before acquainting users with their privacy policies, both apps contacted Facebook and other partners. Maya sent data to the CleverTap analytics platform, and MIA to AppsFlyer, which also provides analytics services to developers.
Right away, MIA wanted to know whether the user had installed the app to plan a pregnancy or just to monitor her menstrual cycle and promptly informed its partners of the answers. The same fate awaited details, including timing and duration, about the womans cycle. Next, the program tried to find out as much as it could about the user: feelings contraceptive practices caffeine, alcohol, and smoking habits. The app even tried to collect information unrelated to womens health, such as about hairstyles and manicures.
Based on the information it collected, as well as its own conclusions on what phase of the cycle the woman was in, the app offered topical articles. This would seem harmless and even useful but for one thing: The list of articles from which it was manifestly clear what the user had reported to the app was sent to Facebook and AppsFlyer.
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