privacy concerns in apps collecting women’s personal health

#60 (TECH) “privacy concerns in apps collecting women’s personal health” — Apple devices. Google abortion petition. China CHIPS act.

Episode Description:

First up – Coming this September Apple is gearing up to show us all the new iPhone 14 along with new Macs, low-end and high-end iPads, and THREE Apple Watch models.

Our second story – Google employees petition bosses for abortion policy changes

Our third story – China against the recently passed Chips and Science Act in the U.S.

And for our fourth and final story… A new report is shining a spotlight on potential privacy concerns loopholes in apps that collect women’s personal health information following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

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What is going on everyone? I’m your host Kevin Muñoz. This is the LEO podcast tech corner, where we discuss all things tech.

For today’s tech news episode. I have 4 juicy stories for you!

First up – Coming this September Apple is gearing up to show us all the new iPhone 14 along with new Macs, low-end and high-end iPads, and THREE Apple Watch models.

Our second story – Google employees petition bosses for abortion policy changes

Our third story – China against the recently passed Chips and Science Act in the U.S.

All this, coming up on today’s free episode. Today is Monday, August twenty-second, if you want early access to episodes and bonus episodes you can find that right now on our patreon.com/latinamericaneo, and if not then enjoy this one!

Article 1: Apple’s new devices coming in September

For our first story!… Coming this September Apple is gearing up to show us all the new iPhone 14 along with new Macs, low-end and high-end iPads, and THREE Apple Watch models.

Personally, I’m most excited for the apple watches, I absolutely love mine for working out and tracking my runs and I only have the third generation so I’m excited to go over with you guys what’s brand new in these new models coming next month.

Now as some of you might know Apple goes pretty hard on their yearly events when showing off to the world their new products.

However, word on the street is that apple again intends to stream their event online instead of doing an in-person gathering.

Now starting off with the iPhone 14 according to Bloomberg the iPhone 14 will look similar to the iPhone 13 but they will eliminate the 5.4-inch “mini” version and add a model with a 6.7-inch screen which will actually be Apple’s first time launching a non-pro iPhone with a display of that size.

It does look like they are planning bigger changes for the iPhone 14 pro line. Apple will replace the front-facing camera cutout which we know as the “the notch” with a pill-shaped hole for Face ID sensors and a hole-punch-sized area for the camera which would result in slightly more screen space.

They are also adding a faster chip to the iPhone 14 pro but will keep the A15 chip from the iPhone 13 in the regular iPhone 14 models.

The most significant change for the iPhone 14 Pro will be the camera system which will look slightly bigger to us. The pro models are going to gain a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera along with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide and telephoto sensors. They are also planning on improvements to video recording and battery life.

Now moving on to my favorite and as I mentioned earlier what I’m REALLY excited about is the apple watches known as series 8.

Apple will be adding features for women’s health and body-temperature sensors. I think tracking your health is important, especially for women but my only concern for women’s health specifically, and also something I’ll be talking about later in today’s episode, is the concerns of privacy revolving around period-tracking and pregnancy apps. As for the temperature sensors, I’m really looking forward to that feature and was honestly surprised it wasn’t already a feature in earlier versions of the Apple Watch. The standard watch will apparently look similar to those series 7, but a new pro model will be targeting sportier consumers which like I said is the only reason I love the Apple Watch so I’ll definitely be eyeing this one. The pro model will have a larger display, rugged titanium case, new fitness tracking features, and more battery life.

They are also planning on a new Apple Watch SE which will be a low-cost smartwatch option with a faster chip.

Also coming this September is IOS 16 which is the software that will be running on the next iPhone, and watchOS9, the next Apple Watch Operating system.

Lastly, Apple is working on an updated low-end iPad with an A14 chip and USB-C port, as well as new iPad Pro pro models with M2 chips for later this year and the launch of the new Macs before the end of the year while they work on versions of the Mac mini and MacBook Pro with M2-based processors.

Article 2: Google employees petition bosses for abortion policy changes

For our second story – over 650 workers at Google are demanding that they offer abortion benefits to contractors, suspend donations to anti-abortion politicians, and better protect users from abortion-related disinformation and police requests.

These requests were made last week through a petition to executives over concerns across the United States since the Supreme Court ruling in June that raised the possibility of new restrictions on abortion and reproductive care in over half of the 50 states.

Of course, there’s no word from Google on the petition but many companies including Google have established policies to assist employees seeking abortions. The workers at Google said temporary staff and contractors also should receive those benefits, such as reimbursement for travel to states where the procedure remains legal.

Alphabet which is the parent company of Google employs over one hundred and seventy-four thousand people globally has said that although it set some standards, it cannot fully dictate the policies of outside vendors.

The petition also mentions that Alphabet shouldn’t direct political contributions toward groups and candidates campaigning to restrict abortion access. It’s paused at least once before in 2021 after the Jan.6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Google said it would pause donations to the republicans who voted against certifying that Joe Biden won the election.

Petitioners also demand that user searches concerning abortion on google “must never be saved, handed over to law enforcement, or treated as a crime” along with echoing demands from abortion advocates who for years have said that Google should remove search results for crisis pregnancy centers, which attempt to dissuade people from abortion. To which Google responded by saying it removes misleading results that are reported.

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Article 3: China against the recently passed Chips and Science Act in the U.S.

For our third story… China recently lashed out at a $52 billion program to expand American chip-making, saying that the landmark blueprint contains elements that violate the fair market principles and that it targets Beijing’s own efforts to build a semiconductor industry.

This all came about because of the U.S. Chips Act, which was signed into law this month and part of an overall package of incentives worth in excess of $200 billion intended to give China’s rivals a helping hand.

The U.S. legislation contains clauses that specifically prohibit companies that receive funding from expanding the production of advanced chips in china.

Companies would be forced to choose between the US and China when looking at it long-term.

The Exceptions only apply to expanding facilities related to “legacy semiconductors” and not cutting-edge chips. These would be companies like Qualcomm and Intel that produce premium processors for PCs and smartphones, not legacy chips.

The restrictions brought on by this act serve to guard against the potential for Chinese companies to copy cutting-edge technologies. But Beijing says the chips bailout is discriminatory.

In the past years, the U.S. has ramped up a campaign to try and contain China’s chip-making ambitions which is a source of increasing frustration for Beijing. Washington is even tightening restrictions on the country’s firms, increasingly limiting the kind of chip-making equipment that American companies can export to Chinese customers, while also enlisting allied countries so that key suppliers like the Netherlands ASML Holding NV and Japan’s Nikon Corp. join a technology blockade.

Sales by the domestic chip sector — the world’s largest — grew 18% in 2021, though that’s expected to slow to 15% this year as the economic slowdown and Covid lockdowns impact the demand.

The passing of the CHIPS Act came about during a time when China’s leadership is increasingly frustrated with its year-long failure to develop semiconductors that can replace US circuitry, despite allocating more than $100 billion to the sector.

China President Xi Jinping planned to invest trillions of dollars to strengthen the country’s tech sector and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. An investment that could be compromised by current economic uncertainty.

China’s economy is still struggling to ramp up from COVID-19 closures, with manufacturing falling to a five-month low in April.

Beijing’s response to the CHIPS Act could come in the form of product embargos or enforced regulations.

Article 4: Privacy concerns in apps collecting women’s personal health

For our fourth and final story for today… A new report is shining a spotlight on potential privacy concerns loopholes in apps that collect women’s personal health information following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

This report that was released last Wednesday by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for online privacy, concluded that among the 25 popular reproductive health apps, most apps were found to have very vague privacy policies surrounding how they will share data with law enforcement.

Eighteen of the products earned Mozilla’s label of “*Privacy Not Included” meaning that user’s data may not be secure, and eight failed to meet the foundation’s “minimum security standards”

Among the apps that were examined by Mozilla’s staff researchers were pregnancy apps, period trackers, and wearables, all products that collect personal reproductive information like weight, birth plans, pregnancy journals, and doctor’s appointments.

The only app -Euki- was ranked in Mozilla’s “best of” category. The app Natural Cycles earned a commendable mention by Mozilla.

Other wearables and apps that ranked near the top of Mozilla’s list include Garmin, Apple Watch, Whoop Strap 4, Oura Ring, and Fitbit.

According to Jen Caltride, a co-author of the report “anything that you share is no longer secure and that’s just an expectation that you should have if you share something with these apps and it’s not stored locally. If the app collects information about your sexual activity, your sexual orientation, your moods, symptoms, pregnancy, your due date, any of it, just expect that that information is no longer yours to control”

Pregnancy and period-tracking apps have millions of users every month who utilize the technology to better understand and help control their reproductive health. The apps can tell you when to expect your next period, if you might be pregnant and how far along you are, when you are the most fertile for conceiving, and what sorts of symptoms you usually experience.

Reproductive health apps ability to share data with law enforcement is a real concern for women who live in states where abortion had been limited or banned.

For those that do use these apps, you should be able to find an app’s privacy policy when you download the app on your phone.

According to the report, you should be wary of privacy policies that are either too short or too long and if companies can’t clearly articulate what data they’re collecting, how they’re using that data, and who they’re sharing that with, then it’s a red flag.

Also if you download an app and can’t find the privacy policy then you probably shouldn’t download that app.

Additionally, apps that are made by companies based in Europe tend to have tighter privacy restrictions than companies based in other locations, including the United States.

THE END

That’s all for today on the LEO podcast. I’m Kevin Muñoz and as always feel free to send me a message with your thoughts or with any interesting topic that you’d like to see covered.

and for those of you on Patreon, I’ll see you in the bonus episode.

Otherwise, I’ll see you all in next week’s episode!

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