this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Privacy

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What the actual fuck. How can we trust any third party app ever? I guess we can’t.

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[–] dasrael@lemmy.zip 6 points 9 hours ago

That makes me feel creamy....

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 8 points 10 hours ago

"What are you feeling today?"

"egg white"

"c r e a m y"

[–] boogiebored@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago

so the pentagon has it

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 22 points 16 hours ago

The lying the app did in their priv policy is shitty behavior. But not unusual behavior.

The phone app ecosystem is a hot mess of treachery.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 20 hours ago

I love fucking up their data.

Haha, bitches I had no ovaries to begin with, and now you think I'm ovulating soon!

Mwahahaha :3

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 101 points 1 day ago

A lot of women had stopped using these types of apps ever since the forced birthers overturned Roe, knowing this type of thing could be used against them.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 24 points 19 hours ago

We can't trust any of them. They'll sell it to the government for those pregnancy lists too, to combat abortion.

[–] airikr@lemmy.ml 65 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Use softwares that are open sourced and be happy. There's plenty of period tracking apps on F-Droid.

Open sourced softwares can't hide trackers from users since the source code must be up-to-date. If not, people will be suspicious. And if a open sourced software do use trackers, the community will complain... a lot!

[–] pomegranatefern@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Just checked out both drip and Bluemoon, both FOSS from F-Droid with local only data

Bluemoon lets you import data from Flo, but to export data from Flo, you need to make an account with Flo, it seems. (It also let's you import data from Clue, but I don't use Clue.)

drip lets you import data just from a CSV file, nothing that seems specific to any app format. So far I like drip a lot better, TBH; the UI is more intuitive to me, and it seems more featureful. Its prediction also lines up with Flo after putting in data since January.

However, I have just downloaded both apps. My plan is to keep Flo around for one more cycle while I compare it to the others, then kick Flo to the curb for becoming enshittified spyware, with sad nostalgia for the life-changing product it originally was to me.

Right now, I am not seeing luteal vs. follicular phase estimated with just period data on either, though, which is annoying. I want a rough sense for the purposes of some tailored nutritional stuff, but I'm not looking to get pregnant or anything and really do not wish to bother with the trouble of taking daily temperatures. Flo currently gives me that. I know it's basically just adding 15 days but I still like having the at a glance feature.

EDIT: Adding Mensinator, another FOSS one on F-Droid, to the trial. Looks like this one offers an import feature, but I have no idea what format it's expecting, because it couldn't find my export from Bluemoon. Mensinator does provide the option to just mark a day as ovulation, which neither Bluemoon nor drip offer. It does at least seem like drip tells you if you're in the first or second half of your cycle on the individual day profile for the day of, but I want something I can use for meal planning. Mensinator may be the best suited for me so far, but I will give them all time.

Also, bafflingly, when I attempted to export my data from drip, it provided me a "share file" option to share the .csv file without a simple option to just...download it.

[–] zealouscurmedgeon@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Closed source doesn't necessarily hide trackers either. Tracker Control (on Android) will point out tracker libraries and tracker domains closed source apps use. A good DNS blocker will let you know too by the logs.

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I agree but most open-source software will not add any trackers because even if they did someone will fork and remove them also lot of open-source apps like this won't even have internet access to sell your data

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

even if they did someone will fork and remove them

Ayup, hopefully. But there's a cultural aspect to that IMO. For that to work, we need enough people invested in doing that. Which can be hard and ongoing work! Say I fork an app. Unless I want to "hostile take over" the whole devel, now I've got to keep rolling in updates. Sometimes those can interact with the changes I made in my fork and automated merges don't handle it. It can be thankless work.

We're lucky at the mo, with OSS. It's a tech heavy crowd. That helps a LOT to keep the culture from enshittifying. There's a lot of good faith volunteering around. But that's a fragile thing.

[–] mycatsays@aussie.zone 8 points 15 hours ago

This.

And there are options that store the data locally on your phone rather than on a company server. This is the safest option.

[–] 64bithero@lemmy.world 19 points 23 hours ago

And this where I as a trolling CIS male might be able to do some good

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The idea of putting this info on my phone has always seemed bonkers to me. Just keep a journal of it, on paper, if this is so critical for you to know for some reason. My daughter used to use one but she deleted it as soon as the Roe v Wade stuff happened, she had no reason to be using it anyway

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 31 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

The idea that putting this on your phone is bonkers is bonkers to me. Why would you want to carry around a journal or paper when you have everything on your phone? It can also be more easily backed up and synced.

It shouldn't be normal that this data is stolen and sold. That is 100% the problem, not the fact that people track things on computers.

[–] racoon@lemmy.ml 1 points 16 hours ago

Imagine that nobody earned money with this mine of women working for free. What a wasted product

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It shouldn't be normal that this data is stolen and sold. That is 100% the problem, not the fact that people track things on computers.

it shouldn't be, but that's the world we live in. we can't change it anymore.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 5 points 16 hours ago

No, but you can still choose to choose software that doesn't steal and sell your data. You can also support laws that make doing this illegal.

[–] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is there anything FOSS like this?

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I use Drip for basic cycle tracking. I don't use it for fertile phase tracking so no comment there.

For cycle tracking, it does what it needs to do. It's easy enough to setup and completely forget what tracker/spyware I used to use. Heck, I think it was Flo I used to use.

And f-droid or another alternative app stores not mandatory, Drip is on the Google Play store at least. Not sure about Apple.

[–] lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] other_cat@piefed.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

Mensinator is a "gets the job done" sort of app. The notifications don't really work for me though, which is a bummer.

[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago

Because of course they would sell this data, fuck all these people

[–] flactwin@lemmy.zip 1 points 15 hours ago

and now they know about you lot what you not)))))))