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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by otter@lemmy.ca to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world

There are downsides with downloading their app just to input bad data, but it's a fun thought.


edit: While we're at it we might as well offer an alternative app to people.

I posted in !opensource@programming.dev to collect recommendations for better apps

The post: https://lemmy.ca/post/32877620

Leading Recommendation from the comments

The leading recommendation seems to be Drip (bloodyhealth.gitlab.io)

Summarizing what people shared:

  • accessible: it is on F-droid, Google Play, & iOS App Store
  • does not allow any third-party tracking
  • the project got support from "PrototypeFund & Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Superrr Lab and Mozilla"
  • Listed features:
    • "Your data, your choice: Everything you enter stays on your device"
    • "Not another cute, pink app: drip is designed with gender inclusivity in mind."
    • "Your body is not a black box: drip is transparent in its calculations and encourages you to think for yourself."
    • "Track what you like: Just your period, or detect your fertility using the symptothermal method."

Their Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@dripapp

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[-] 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com 171 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

it's quite silly imo. unlikely to accomplish much or anything at all. teaching people about free software like drip is way more likely to actually help people. it's free, open source, and completely local.

edit: they even have a mastodon!

[-] Venator@lemmy.nz 57 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Not to mention that downloading that flow app will help them boost thier numbers, I doubt they'd care if men are using it as long as they can sell the data...

[-] nickhammes@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

Would a bunch of users entering garbage data, with not all of them being totally obvious, make it harder to sell that data? Possibly.

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[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 16 points 2 weeks ago

Because moving people off Facebook messenger and over to Signal or WIRE instead has been so very effective.

You are right. We here know it. But we are a teeny tiny percentage compared to 340million.

Remember, inertia is a major driving force of humanity.

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[-] otter@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

Drip seems to be the leading recommendation. I've edited the post with it so people seeing the meme also get the recommendation :)

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[-] dditty@lemm.ee 168 points 2 weeks ago

So I just installed this right now after seeing this, and man this app has a lengthy initial startup process with dark patterns and everything. Now apparently I'm ovulating in two days. 🤭

[-] OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world 88 points 2 weeks ago

I'm going to learn how to orgasm!

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Is it FOSS? Or does it collect tons of data?

Oop, read the post better. Nevermind hahaha

[-] TheRealLinga@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago

I'm "abnormal" 🫨

So it's not normal to have a 55 day cycle? Oh snap!

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 102 points 2 weeks ago

So I fucking hate that this is where my brain went, but my kneejerk reaction to this was: "If I do this, could it be used as evidence to charge my wife with the death of a nonexistent fetus?"

I live in the cousin-fuckingly-deep south where women are incubators and a long list of stereotypes. I could definitely see it argued in court - successfully - that an app like that was only used on my phone to try to conceal my wife's data, and the data points to one of the ways we've criminalized pregnancy.

...and that's thinking about what could happen here and now. Once Trump has had his way with our country, we'd probably just get deported to one of daddy Putin's gulags or some shit.

I really fucking hate it here.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago

not to mention the reason why you're only supposed to say the word "lawyer" to cops is they literally tell you: "ANYTHING you say CAN and WILL be used AGAINST YOU in a court of law." That doesn't mean "might or maybe" or "to help you."

[-] grue@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, I would only do this if I lived alone or only with other males and had no SO/post-puberty daughters/close female friends.

[-] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Track your nightly flatulence on a piece of paper too, and keep the same data on it that you put in the app. If it makes it to court claim the app was just a convient way to track other things, and let the courts discuss your farts.

[-] OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world 70 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

These symptoms might actually be related to the 12k mountain trail run I did yesterday after work, and I'm pretty sure the bleeding is because I got scratched by a spiky bush, but you cannot be too careful fellas

[-] BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

Day 1065: still feeling fatigue. Poor sleep habits or longest period ever?

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[-] otter@lemmy.ca 63 points 2 weeks ago

Post text:

Dear men I need you to go download an app called "Flo" and start using it chaotically. Don't ask anyone how to use it. Just use it. The more, the better. Let's Christmas tree that data.

As a software developer who loves to screw the data and a person who will do ANYTHING can to protect women for the next 4 years, I am so excited to begin tracking my manstrual cycle

[-] pinkystew@reddthat.com 25 points 2 weeks ago
[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 52 points 2 weeks ago

What's the point of spamming one specific menstrual tracker / women's health app? Lack of better hobbies? Or is there some controversy around the company behind it? Or just general state of freedom and surveillance in the USA?

[-] Ellvix@lemmy.world 72 points 2 weeks ago

The idea is that they'll be used to track pregnancy and hurt people in certain states. Chaos will help the situation.

[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 34 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Computer databases are kind of purpose-built to organize a lot of (arbitrary) information. I seriously doubt this kind of chaos is going to make even the slightest difference. It's probably just giving people some false sense of security while any information that's stored in any cloud can still be retrieved. And effortlessly be matched to whomever they like to oppress. At least if it's associated with some account, email or specific phone.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 weeks ago

"A bunch of new accounts posting obviously worthless data joined about the same time. Disregard them."

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[-] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

The tiny percentage of users of these apps doing this will have their outlier data completely ignored. Colossal waste of time and energy.

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[-] Nougat@fedia.io 12 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck it, download all of them.

[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 46 points 2 weeks ago

I don’t want to victim blame but if using an app is optional and it could get you in trouble with the law (regardless of how bad the law is), you should not use it.

Having said that, as a dev, please pollute data as much as possible.

Management needs to learn how valuable good data is and good data comes with proper consent (most people wouldn’t share their data if they could opt out).

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

These apps are very helpful for people who have irregular cycles or who are family planning. I relied heavily on a similar app in high school, because my monthlies weren’t monthly. I was able to share that data with my doctors to help better understand my body.

This really indicates a need for self-hosted solutions.

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[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 43 points 2 weeks ago

You would think it wouldn’t be this easy, but given the incredible disconnect from reality on reporting late term abortion statistics, this could scramble data.

For those who don’t know, the raw statistic of late term abortions comes down to late term terminations via a procedure used in pre 20week months to end a pregnancy. There’s little difference in logging the data. Babies can die inside, even as you’re trying to attend your own baby shower, like with that young girl who recently tried to get help from 3 Texas emergency rooms, but instead died due to the late term corpse rotting in her uterus.

The procedure used to expel a stillbirth in the late term is an abortion. That is what pregnancy termination by procedure is: abortion. But the context of corpse removal is lost on political alarmists who don’t bother to do their own research on how/when the procedure is used in late term pregnancy, in favor of uneducated hysteria and the demonizing of women.

My point is, given how resolutely people have not delved into the context of this data regarding stillbirths, messing with menstrual trackers can and probably will work, provided you don’t limit yourself to Flo.

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[-] urheber@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 2 weeks ago

people will do anything but search for an alternative

[-] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 46 points 2 weeks ago

...how do you mean?

Obviously we're not going to get everyone to download a FOSS period tracker, as nice as that would be -- they're already invested in the ones they're using, and no doubt it will have features and usability improvements the FOSS one doesn't, usually thanks to some network service that is fundamentally incompatible with the FOSS philosophy. That's almost always how these things go.

We should definitely be telling more people about F-Droid, but let's not get our hopes up. Socialism is about protecting everyone, even people who don't share your views, even if those views are objectively correct.

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

We should definitely be telling more people about F-Droid, but let’s not get our hopes up

Accessibility (not being on FDroid only) was one of the things I was looking for when looking for recommendations. Thankfully the leading recommendation is on Google Play & iOS App Store :) I have edited the post above with more details

Drip (bloodyhealth.gitlab.io)

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[-] ptz@dubvee.org 29 points 2 weeks ago

I have several old Android phones sitting in a drawer. They've just been given a glorious purpose.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago

I have a reminder app that randomizes reminders for a medical issue I'm dealing with.

Sounds like I'll be dealing with two medical issues that app will require now.

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[-] Mac@mander.xyz 25 points 2 weeks ago

This is the scummiest app I've ever downloaded.

[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Can you elaborate? my wife uses it, I told her about Drip and other opensource alternatives but I don't know where "scummiest" comes from

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Well, it depends on what you want out of it and, to be fair, i am not a period-haver.

That being said there is so, so much tracking it is doing to give you data and recommendations. While getting started it felt positively gross the amount fo personal questions it was asking. Why is all that necessary? Again, it depends if you want whatever information it is giving you.

But, even on top of that, wasn't it proven that the app was selling data to interested parties to be used for nedarious reasons? That's why we're even doing this whole men-should-sign-up-to-feed-it-bullshit-and-ruin-the-data in the first place.
Even though, as another user said: it likely wouldnt actually do anything.

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[-] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 weeks ago

Calling an app that tracks menstrual cycle "Drip" is peak comedy

[-] rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 weeks ago

There was an IT Crowd episode on the Manstrual Cycle

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago

Oh that's what I was remembering! Aunt Irma

[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

I've been using it to track my poops.

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[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Take all that neatly organized data and turn it into Christmas tree lights that have been sitting in a box all summer.

[-] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 12 points 2 weeks ago

Uh, it was trying to make me pay?

Was totally on board till I hit the pay wall.

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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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