Period tracker app Flo developing ‘anonymous mode’ following Supreme Court ruling

Flo, one of the vital extensively used interval monitoring apps, says it intends to launch a brand new in an effort to deal with privateness considerations within the wake of the Supreme Court docket’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. “We are going to quickly be launching an ‘Nameless Mode’ that removes your private identification out of your Flo account, in order that nobody can establish you,” the corporate stated in an announcement shared on Twitter.
It’s not clear how it will work or when it’d launch. We’ve reached out to Flo for extra particulars on “nameless mode.”
Interval monitoring apps have come beneath explicit ever since a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked final month. Privateness advocates and authorized consultants have that information collected by interval monitoring apps, which is commonly shared with other entities, could possibly be used to gas investigations into folks searching for abortion companies. Information of the Supreme Court docket’s determination led to renewed calls on social media for folks to delete interval monitoring apps from their telephones and take away their private particulars from the companies.
Notably, Flo itself has a messy historical past with regards to defending customers’ privateness. The app got here beneath hearth after The Wall Avenue Journal reported the app was sharing customers’ delicate info, together with particulars about their menstrual cycles and in the event that they have been making an attempt to get pregnant, with Fb, Google and different third-parties.
The corporate reached with the FTC in 2021 over allegations it misled customers about how their information was dealt with. Flo stated on the time that the settlement “was not an admission of any wrongdoing.” The corporate stated in in Could that it had “efficiently accomplished” an unbiased privateness audit that was a requirement of the settlement.
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