#1 Period Tracker on the App Store (Stardust) Will Hand Over Your Data To Law Enforcement Without A Warrant
Stardust Period Tracker was the most-downloaded free app on iOS over the weekend.
UPDATE: In response to our reporting, Stardust changed its privacy policy to omit the phrase about cooperating with law enforcement “whether or not legally required."
The original caption continues below ⬇️
Menstrual tracking app Stardust is one of Apple’s top three most-downloaded free apps right now. It’s also one of few apps that has said it will voluntarily—without being legally required to—comply with law enforcement if it’s asked to share user data.
After the fall of Roe on Friday, a widely-shared concern is that law enforcement can use personal data created in apps against people who’ve sought or gotten abortions illegally.
Despite this, more people are downloading Stardust—which combines astrology with menstrual cycle tracking—right now than some of the most-downloaded apps in history. As of Monday morning, Stardust was ranking above hugely popular apps including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram as of Monday morning on the iOS App Store.
Stardust seems to have done a decent job of jumping on this moment when everyone is screaming into the Twitter void to “delete you period tracking app!” by marketing itself as the choice for safety-conscious people to track their cycles.
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this app's downloads skyrocketed after the verdict because they started marketing themselves as 'privacy first', yet they are willing to give the police your data “whether or not legally required" which the article notes is not even typical of apps, as most apps only give the law what is "legally required."
post-roe, they began intentionally pushing themselves as one of the most privacy-conscious period apps on the market only to then attempt to quietly update their privacy policy to basically let ya'll know that they are enthusiastically cooperating with the police.
they set a trap.
Source:https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3p...p-store-will-hand-over-data-without-a-warrant
