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submitted 1 year ago by DevCat@lemmy.world to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

Police in the United Kingdom are using data from period tracking apps and mass spectrometry tests conducted on blood, placenta, and urine to investigate patients who have had “unexplained” miscarriages.

Though abortion is legal in the UK, there are TRAP laws in place requiring certain conditions to be met first, paramount of which is that two separate doctors need to agree that the patient meets the criteria of the 1967 Abortion Act before any treatment can go ahead. Self-managed abortion is a criminal offense with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the UK, as is any abortion performed after the pregnancy has progressed passed 23 weeks and six days, unless the patient is at risk of serious physical harm or death, or the fetus has severe developmental anomalies.

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[-] fubo@lemmy.world 194 points 1 year ago

Hey, people who menstruate! Don't use software that leaks your period. There are clean, open source alternatives for your Android or Apple phone.

https://bloodyhealth.gitlab.io/

[-] Norgur@kbin.social 42 points 1 year ago

A Data protective App funded by the German government. Take that, Brits!

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As if we needed more to be depressed about, what a mess our country now is. I can see why people immigrate.

[-] theUnlikely@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago
[-] A1kmm@lemmy.amxl.com 14 points 1 year ago

Not a bad idea in terms of keeping sensitive information out of the hands of companies and dragnet surveillance, but probably ineffective if your threat model is local police seizing your phone (like in the article) because you had a miscarriage, and using period tracker data against you somehow.

[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 year ago
[-] Arrakis@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

When you use it once a month for decades, that paper starts to get either full or lost.

[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe -2 points 1 year ago
[-] Arrakis@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Still doesn't help much if you lose it, I'm guessing you don't menstruate? Plus, apps do the prediction for you so you don't need to count days to figure out whether your symptoms are hormonal or physical or whether you're late or not, etc.

[-] Arrakis@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Shame it was written for an old ass version of Android or I'd happily switch.

E: Idk why this is getting downvoted. I can't install it from the Play Store because the app hasn't been updated. Why is that controversial? 😅

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe their GitLab has the latest version? Sometimes open source apps will release first on their own repo before it gets pushed to external app repos.

[-] Arrakis@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

I've always been a bit wary of apps which haven't been released to the app store (maybe I'm overly paranoid!), so I'm just gonna stick with my crappy spreadsheet for now instead, until it gets updated. Appreciate the suggestion though :)

this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
537 points (98.2% liked)

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