At this point I am a privacy nihilist, and I expect all information about anyone to be exploited all the time. Everyone should do the same.

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I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is a data format standard defined. You should be able to "take your data with you" and go anywhere you like. If you decide an app is unethical or if your favorite OSS app stops being updated, it should be simple to switch. Many apps let you export your data. Maybe someone can make a converter between popular proprietary apps and a common data structure spec

“User privacy is important to Meta, which is why we do not want health or other sensitive information and why our terms prohibit developers from sending any.” Meta maintains that any transmission of sensitive health data is due to a failure to comply with its terms of use.

If the app sold the data to Meta through extremely automated Meta platforms. Doesn't the bulk of legal liability and social backlash lie on the app instead of on Meta?

Like sure if a company is caught buying stolen goods, maybe they could tighten up due diligence, but the actual thief is the main culprit.

https://www.labaton.com/cases/frasco-v-flo-health-inc

.. To be clear, "wired app to standard ad-tech surveillance plumbing, sending concepts like user logged period and pregnancy mode entered, through its pipes, to improve ad revenues through Meta's targeting platform" .. ad-events .. this is the kind of behavior that happened, in plain-ish speaking terms, per what I read in my non-expert capacity.

Q: (answered) Now I want to know who runs (ran?) Flo - can we find their Board of Directors & C-level people on LinkedIn to profile what kind of industries lead to this kind of (I believe) privacy violating behaviors? It's a biased question on my part, as Correlation is not Causality! Onwards ..

My limited, biased, AI-driven research suggests the violating behavior ran from June 2016 through February 2019, and that generally the Company was designed to be consumer-app with subscriptions and is healthcare-adjacent, targeting an unregulated non-HIPPA market.

- INVESTORS = consumer subscription apps with ad-driven growth loops

- BUSINESS MODEL =

(1) free or freemium consumer apps where

(2) growth depends on paid acquisition through Meta/Google/TikTok ad platforms, which

(3) requires sending conversion events back to those platforms to optimize ad spend, and

(4) the SDKs that do this are designed by ad networks to hoover up everything by default.

- EXECUTIVE =

* No Privacy / Data Protection C-level officers during violating period

https://bloodyhealth.gitlab.io

A secure open source period tracking app.

However, regardless, we really need to just kill the data broker business model.

Speaking as someone who implemented GDPR for my startup when the law first came into effect, there were certainly rough edges.

But the core premise that you simply cannot sell user data to sub-processors without consent is a powerful one that I believe would fix a lot of broken things in the US system.

(Not least because the USG buys private data that would be unconstitutional for it to directly collect, but also things like the incentives for your cell phone provider to sell your location data to advertisers.)

If you put data onto a networked device it may be sent to some place else.

If you don't want your data being shared:

Use a device that does not have any networking capability (both hardware and software wise)

Use a pen and paper, you can shred and destroy as you see fit.

If you're using an application on a mobile device with mobile data/wifi, the chances are, your data is being uploaded.

It's not a medical requirement from a doctor, so just keep a diary if you want to. Not everything needs to be an app. All the money spent on regulations and regulators to cover increasingly niche opt-in services that are entirely unnecessary is a waste.