According to a story on NPR’s Science Friday, women who track their menstrual cycles might find that info being snooped by anti-abortion police agencies. A woman who misses an expected period by a few weeks might find herself accused of having an abortion, even though irregular cycles are not unusual in normal life.
Think your apps are safe from police snooping? Think again.
The mobile phone privacy (or lack thereof) impact on women who have abortions – or even think of having abortions – may reach far beyond just those apps that specifically deal with menstrual tracking or, more generally, womens’ health apps.
Cell phones track your every call, your every text message, your location, your doctor visits, . . . It can be very difficult to discover all the things your phone is tracking about you, let alone how to disable that kind of stuff.
Wow. I’m glad I’m almost out of time in this Brave New World.
You and me both!
Yeah I’d say it’s a matter of when, not if data, from menstrual cycle apps are used to support a prosecution for abortion (if roe wade is overturned)
I would personally support legislation in somewhere like California (which is both liberal and a big enough market that legislation there would probably force companies to the follow it) to ban companies from retaining information like that.
I should be getting my uterus removed in the winter after chemo. I’ve been wondering if they think cancer is a good reason for this or not.
Better get it done while and where it’s still legal! You could be charged with one count of eggslaughter for every ovum left stranded behind!
Originally they were going to remove it first. Then after looking at everything they decided chemo and radiation (halfway through that) first.
I’m male, and even were I female, I’m well past the age when menstrual cycles would be relevant, but the interactions of devices and databases creep me out sometimes. I recently got an email from my credit card company saying that they noted I’d purchased airline tickets to Phoenix and that they had taken the liberty of adding a comment to my file so that I wouldn’t get dinged for possible fraud when I used my credit card there.
I guess it was convenient, and I knew they knew I bought the tickets, but I felt really funny about the Citicard folks keeping up with my movements. It’s like I used to joke about watching the Today show all over the country, and Willard Scott would give the national weather, and then he’d say “Here’s what’s happening in your neighborhood” and there’s be a local weather report. How’s Willard Scott keeping track of me I’d say. You pay for the convenience with your privacy and information.
If you paid for some tickets with a credit card, then by definition the credit-card company knows what you did. If you had bought the tickets with cash, they would not. One thing that is not clear is how Big Brother knows what anonymous apps someone might be using, and how sensitive medical information would make its way beyond the user’s control. It’s known that the FBI purchased Israeli spyware for domestic surveillance; is this tangentially related to that?
They don’t need any 1984-style mass surveillance for that, the cop can just look on your home screen. Which (if you have locked your phone by face or fingerprint) you are required to show them without a warrant.
The apps (just like pretty much any app) are not just storing your personal data locally on your phone. They are uploading it to thier server so they can sell it to third parties and make money (this is how apps like this make money). If the data is there on the companies server it’s fairly straightforward for the cops to get it with a warrant, once they have someone under investigation for allegedly having an abortion. I wouldn’t be surprised if when (due to striking down of Roe-Wade) this kind of prosecution is common, getting a warrant for any period tracking apps is standard practice.
Is that even possible in this age of Super Security Theater? I wouldn’t think so.
Warrantless searches are legal now? I guess people have to set up their phones with a “self-destruct” unlock code for that rubber-hose decryption scenario.
Yup, as they are deemed “nontestimonial” (like giving fingerprints or taking part in a line up) so not covered by 5th amendment…
Ten years ago, I would have called the OP an utter crackpot.
I fear for 10 years from now.
Heaven forbid you should look up the price of the morning-after pill or RU486 on GoodRx or RxSaver. Selling your prescription info is exactly what they’re in business for.
Only a decade ago?
Don’t forget Project Carnivore was being implemented (upgraded, really) a quarter-century ago. Because it drew such criticism from liberals like us Cecilians, the US Government announced the project was scuttled. The next year DC1000 went live with no fuss, fanfare, or notice. In the years since the Internet became commercialized far superior tools have been created ‘for their own private usage’ by commercial entities – Google, Akamai, et cetera.
I think all of us guys (and girls, but particularly guys) should make a point of regularly checking out menstrual tracking apps and Morning After pills and all that stuff. You want to come after me because I might have had an abortion? How do you honestly think I got pregnant? That should throw the statistical engines for a loop! 
–G!
It’s been quite a while.
It’s good to see a lot of you are still around.
[Sorry if you’re thinking “Awww shit, G’s back!”]
This article says “State health officials are not subject to state privacy laws”. Big Brother already tracking women’s periods.
From Washington Post October 30, 2019:
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
October 30, 2019 at 6:15 p.m. EDT
A good idea (and welcome back!). Similar to what I was considering when there was a lot of loose talk a few years back about having some kind of “database” for Muslims in the US. 
Get a bunch of non-Muslim Americans to nominally convert to Islam and noisy up the database.
Although, tbf, the algorithms probably have some fairly simple filters for weeding out those anomalies so I’m not sure how much use it would be.