Period tracking app Flo has finally released an anonymous mode initially announced earlier this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a controversial decision. Following the judgment, women across the country raised concerns about whether their period-tracking data could be used against them in court if they were to seek abortion care in the states where it is now illegal. Concerned about their privacy, many women also claimed that they are deleting period-tracking apps from their phones or are seriously considering doing so.
Many period tracking apps are either adding anonymous modes or implementing end-to-end encryption that will prevent anyone from accessing user data to assure women of their privacy. The steps will also ensure that the developers of these period-tracking apps will not be able to hand over personal user data to the government even if they are asked to do so. One such app is Stardust, which implemented E2E encryption earlier this year, and promptly rose to the top of the download charts on the App Store with the promise of absolute privacy.
Popular period tracking app Flo has finally made good on its promise to introduce an 'anonymous mode' that the developers say would remove users' personal identity from their Flo account, thereby ensuring that no one can personally identify them. The company initially announced the feature in late June, following grave concerns over the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. According to an official press release, the anonymous mode is currently live on the latest version of the iOS app and will be available on Android sometime next month.
Anonymous Mode In Flo Period Tracking App
According to Flo, the anonymous mode will allow users to use the app without entering their name, email address or any other kind of identifier that could be used to positively ID a user. To implement the feature, Flo partnered with CDN provider Cloudflare - the same company that Apple worked with for its iCloud Private Relay. According to Flo, the new feature will allow users to "continue tracking their health and benefit from the information logged before, but with as much privacy as possible."
It is worth noting that for people choosing to use the new feature, their information won't be linked to any identifier and will hence be lost forever if they lose the device. Most of the data also can't be transferred to a new device when they change their phone, with the only exceptions being cycles and symptoms. Given the limitations of the anonymous mode, the company says it chose to offer the feature as an option rather than turn it on by default.
While an anonymous mode is a step in the right direction, it doesn't necessarily mitigate all privacy concerns people have with Flo. The app has a long and checkered history of privacy violations, which is enough to make some users uneasy about it despite the new feature. Back in 2019, Flo was accused of sharing users' private data with Google, Facebook and other third parties, but users will be hoping that the app has sorted out those issues and there will be no more such leaks in the future.
Source: Flo/PR Newswire