Thanks to increased knowledge about menstruation and women’s sexual health, the conversation around periods has come out into the open in the past decade.
Various apps like MIA and Maya (to name a few) are available for easy download onto one’s phone. These help to keep track of the dates of one’s cycle, to detect any abnormalities, and even to keep a track of contraceptives used and periods of sexual activity.
Leaking sensitive data
Needless to say, all this information is highly personal and sensitive. While we are, as a society, better informed about sexual health, these are still not things most people would casually discuss over dinner with their families.
So, imagine the shock and outrage caused when the world came to know that period tracker apps like MIA and Maya, used by millions of women around the world, have been leaking information about when their users are sexually active and what kind of contraceptives they use to Facebook, irrespective of whether the users are even on Facebook or not.
Learn more about it in my video below:
Read More: Huawei Banned In The US, Is China Trying To Spy With Its Phones And Apps?
Why does Facebook want to know?
It’s extremely suspicious as to why Facebook would want to create a database of such personal information.
We all know that Facebook has morphed into something more insidious than a mere platform to chat with your friends and be updated on their lives.
It has become a dangerous tracking tool that can give you specific details about even strangers, and this is a major security threat.
The copious details of our personal lives that we upload online on a regular basis can also be used to understand our personalities so deeply that a fake identity can be created, a ‘virtual you’, which makes identity theft and other such crimes that much easier.
How do we keep ourselves safe?
In my personal opinion, it’s best to record information about your menstrual cycle and sexual wellness in a diary or a calendar, not on any app that can potentially sell this data and put you and your safety at risk.
To be honest, social media itself is not safe anymore, with eyes everywhere, systematically creating virtual files on almost every human being on the planet.
It’s better that we reclaim our autonomy NOW by taking our lives offline again, instead of contributing to an Orwellian 1984-type dystopian scenario where an unknown, unseen Big Brother literally has his eye on every human being.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Guardian, She The People
Find the author online at: @samyukthanair_
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