A data expert warns women against using encrypted period trackers and only signing up with alias email accounts to protect their privacy in the wake of the Roe v Wade coup.
Mico Yuk, a data expert at Count, said while the data is good, women still need to take precautions to protect their privacy.
Yuk, who has been using a period tracker for six years, said period trackers track “overall health” and collect a lot of data from users. Tracking apps can also track sexual activity and whether or not women intend to conceive through user input.
She now recommends women use encrypted trackers — like Period Plus or Natural Cycles — and only use apps that explicitly say so They will not sell users’ data. She also recommends checking the phone settings to see if an app is encrypted.
Yuk also suggested that women should use an alias account when using health tracking apps and searching for health questions. But more importantly, she advises against using email addresses that are “connected to a search engine,” she told DailyMail.com.
Fears that period-tracking apps could expose women when they’re having abortions have increased after Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. Young women across the US have been urged to remove the apps from their phones over fears their data could be tracked and they could be prosecuted in states that now criminalize abortion.
Mico Yuk, a data expert for Count, (pictured) warns women of childbearing age after the controversial fall of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court to be smart about privacy
After the coup, many women deleted their period trackers (stock image) from their phones over concerns that state governments could use their data to find out if they were pregnant in criminal cases against those who received abortions
Yuk encourages women who use period tracking apps to use Natural Cycles and Period Plus, who have vowed to protect user privacy
Natural Cycles, one of the apps Yuk recommends, has promised its users who pay a subscription to use the app to “never sell your data.”
“We charge a subscription to protect you and your data,” he said on his Twitter page. ‘The privacy of our users is of the utmost importance to us.’
Yuk also said that Period Plus will not sell user data.
Another way to protect your privacy is to switch from Google Chrome — which owns your search history — to Firefox, which “focuses on privacy,” Yuk said.
Although Chrome offers an incognito option, Yuk advises against using it because “you have to remember” to toggle it every time.
Chrome is generally “full of data,” especially when the browser is signed into an email address, Yuk told DailyMail.com.
When it comes to creating an alias to sign up for period tracking apps or to browse health questions online, she recommends using Hushmail.com and Fastmail.com, which she said offer the small monthly service fee are “definitely worth it”.
“The key is that it’s not tied to any search engine, and it’s encrypted and secure,” she told DailyMail.com.
Simply searching for “missed period” or other related terms such as abortion clinics and health-related issues would be collected at the email address, leading to easy tracing.
Six of the nine judges vote to overthrow Roe v. Wade and immediately threaten access to abortion medicine for millions of American women
When asked how companies can sell health data, such as B. Period cycle information without violating HIPPA, she said she “can’t” talk about the legal aspect, but wasn’t sure how states would proceed since the overthrow happened so quickly.
Yuk also said companies have a “moral rather than a legal obligation” to protect user data, and often sell data because it’s “cheaper” than going against the subpoena.
Period tracker Flo, which at one point had 38 million users, was caught selling user data without permission about two years ago after promising to secure private information. Later it turned out that it leaked millions of users’ sensitive information to third-party apps.
The data sold by Flo went to several well-known platforms such as Facebook and Google, influencing algorithms and targeted ads.
Other devices such as Google Home have been accused of collecting recordings that also affect the data collected and presented to users, which can also be used against those accused of abortion crimes.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, allowing many states to activate trigger laws banning abortions at as little as six weeks — when fetuses develop a heartbeat.
Recently, a 10-year-old Ohio girl became pregnant with her rapist’s baby and was forced to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion.
Protesters took to the streets outside the US Supreme Court (pictured) just hours after the coup, urging judges to recognize that “motherhood should be a choice”.
The story became controversial after Ohio AG and the governor’s offices claimed that neither of them heard “a whisper” about the story and that there was no “biological evidence” in the case.
The 27-year-old rapist has since been remanded in custody and has admitted to sexually abusing the child on at least two occasions.
Since the coup, women in nearly 30 states have been at risk of losing their abortion rights. Demonstrators across the country have taken to the streets to protest the upheaval and to demand federal protection of the right to access abortion health care.
The Biden administration has been asked to work on federal protection, but nothing has happened so far.
The Supreme Court of the 26 states where abortion is likely to become illegal has overturned Roe vs. Wade
The 26 states where abortion is likely to become illegal if SCOTUS overturns Roe vs. Wade after a leaked draft opinion showed a majority of judges support the move
More than half of all US states have some form of abortion ban, likely to come into effect after Roe v Wade was overturned by the United States supreme court.
According to the reproductive rights group, the Guttmacher Institute, they do exist 26 states likely to make abortion illegal after Supreme Court overturns landmark 1973 ruling
Eighteen have existing abortion bans previously ruled unconstitutional, four have temporary bans and four are likely to pass legislation once Roe v Wade is repealed, the organization found.
The 18 states that already have a near-total abortion ban are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin Wyoming.
In addition, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina have laws prohibiting abortions after the six-week mark.
Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska are likely to pass legislation if Roe v Wade is repealed, the Guttmacher Institute said.
The bans of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin all have pre-Roe v Wade laws that became unenforceable after the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision — the would now set the federal precedent established in Roe was overturned.
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas have additional bans that will take effect if the law is repealed. These were handed over to Roe v Wade.
Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming join them in passing such laws.
The states that restrict abortions based on the length of a patient’s pregnancy are Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio.
There are four states that have laws that state abortion is not a constitutionally protected right: Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia.
