This is exactly as cruel and pointless as it sounds.

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.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nl
      29·
      1 year ago

      It’s called data poisoning. I run AdNauseum and TrackMeNot which both do something similar but I’m shocked at the lack of data poisoning software development.

      Hiding your data can be hard but filling your profile with junk is trivial by comparison.

      • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Data poisoning is part of my moral system. If a company asks me a personal question, I give them a slightly incorrect answer

        I’ve been doing it since I started using the Internet, and it pays off. My information is all scrambled… It’s still out there since it’s all been leaked, but it’s enough to make it hard to process my info

      • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        I suspect there is plenty of data poisoning software development. However, most of it is private development for use in the lucrative business of click farming.

        The World Federation of Advertisers estimates that ad fraud (which is data poisoning with extra steps) accounts for 10-30% of clicks, globally.

        • helenslunch@feddit.nl
          1·
          1 year ago

          I guess the question is why isn’t there more public development? Why doesn’t EFF add this to privacy badger?

    • DevCat@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      302·
      1 year ago

      I am a CIS male and run the Flo app just to mess with their stats and tracking. You wouldn’t believe how often my period is off!

      • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
        18·
        1 year ago

        Same! I had a pregnancy scare a few weeks ago, but I’m back on my period again with my nonexistent uterus. Phew.

        • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
          13·
          1 year ago

          I bled 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21st of October. I plan on doing it backwards this month. My cup and non-existent uterus runneth over. I’m thinking of having a pregnancy scare next month sometime, just in time for the holidays.