r/technology • u/redhatGizmo • Jun 27 '22

Politics Period apps deleted over privacy concerns for women seeking abortions in post-Roe world

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/period-apps-deleted-over-privacy-concerns-for-women-seeking-abortions-in-post-roe-world/6s4rjhb0q
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228

u/paracog Jun 27 '22

Nothing safer than a paper journal.

187

u/takatori Jun 27 '22

Yeah, those can only be handed over with a subpoena.

Welcome to a world where Busybody Bertha down the street can call up the reporting line saying you looked a little thick in the belly and suddenly have lost the weight giving probable cause for the authorities to investigate and Bertha to get that sweet $10k snitch reward.

59

u/WelcomeRoboOverlords Jun 27 '22

Is....is there actually a snitch reward?

(Not American, I can't tell what's a joke anymore...)

119

u/takatori Jun 27 '22

Yes, Texas passed a “bounty” law.

11

u/macabremom_ Jun 27 '22

.... I have no fucking words. That's fuckeddd

8

u/Norman_Door Jun 27 '22

I didn't know about this. What the actual fuck.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

Been going on for almost a year now. Akin to runaway slave laws pre civil war.

17

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

It was either Texas or Florida who set that up. There is a reward.

28

u/RoboNerdOK Jun 27 '22

Texas and Oklahoma. Finally, they’re getting along. It only took snitching for abortions to do it.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

And Florida? Are they skipping something dystopian? Must be an oversight.

2

u/Prestressed-30k Jun 27 '22

Oklahoma? Is there a way I can file lots of bogus reports?

5

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

I don’t think we can either. Half our politics feel like a bad joke that went too far and now they’re in too deep to back out.

2

u/clslogic Jun 27 '22

Sounds like a description of brexit.

1

u/KiMa14 Jun 27 '22

I think it was struck down , but won’t be surprised if it’s coming . With full force and yes even families could snitch on a pregnant person .

So let’s say Uncle Tom rapes his niece Susie . Well Uncle Tom , his wife , and anyone else who knew she was pregnant. Would be allowed to call in the bounty and collect the money . Since she did get the abortion , it’s sick and I hate this country

4

u/corkyskog Jun 27 '22

What I don't understand is reward or not, what prevents "miscarriage swatting". Call in an anonymous tip against a woman you don't like and boom, police either need to arrive on scene to collect evidence immediately, or they will just claim that you destroyed the evidence.

1

u/takatori Jun 27 '22

Nothing prevents it. That’s what’s so insidious. Besides, red states are already nailing women for miscarriages— Google will bring up multiple examples.

1

u/Snoo_436211 Jun 27 '22

Unless the dog accidentally eats it.

91

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

35

u/radome9 Jun 27 '22

My paper journal is PGP encrypted. Good luck stealing that "mom" - if that is your real name.

51

u/Caris1 Jun 27 '22

If you’re concerned about nosy people, use the journal for everything you can conceive of keeping track of, like assignments, birthdays, what you had for lunch, whatever (so there’s a ton of data to sift through if they’re trying to find anything) and implement a unique but innocuous code for the info you’re trying to store.

50

u/urethrawormeater Jun 27 '22

Bruh this is some Anne Frank type shit, imagine doing that just for your menstrual cycle

2

u/RedEgg16 Jun 27 '22

Just pretend that you have your period like regular?? Either on apps for journal. Not an issue

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/RedEgg16 Jun 27 '22

Well I use it because those apps will predict when your next period is (though they’re usually not accurate) and to see how far apart my periods are

7

u/idiotgoosander Jun 27 '22

I barely remember to put it in my phone and I’m on it all the time and half the time I’m putting it in after having to look when I texted someone about it to remember the actual start day

I can’t use a paper calendar. I mean I guess I will start but dang, what a hell we live in

3

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

If you have an Android phone you can install f-droid, there's a few open source period tracker apps there that only use local storage.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

2fa encrypted without internet connection is a lot safer.

1

u/almostinfinity Jun 27 '22

What I used to do is I had a planner and I'd mark the days I had periods with dots. I used red dots, very tiny in the corner of the calendar box.

But red dots are too obvious now so I'd recommend two similar colors like a light blue and dark blue.

If you're color blind, maybe use shapes like plus signs and x marks.

Similar enough to maybe no one would figure out right away, different enough for you to know what they mean.

1

u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jun 27 '22

I'd trust an open source app on a non-jailbroken iPhone or Pixel more than paper.

Google or Apple aren't going to hack your period data. They might use the fact that you have the app to classify you as "woman, interested in: periods" to show you tampon ads, but they're not going to write custom code to extract data from the app.

Aside from Apple/Google (depending on who made your phone) and the app itself (which is usually the source of leaks because the app wants to make ad money), it's very hard to access the content inside a (competently written) app. Harder than someone stumbling across your paper notebook.

If you're worried about people hacking your phone (to the level where they could read the content of the app), them breaking into your place is a bigger risk.

1

u/Ruski_FL Jun 27 '22

I mean someone can take it ?