I cried once over accidentally deleting my period tracker app because I didn't have a backup setup for my data. I lost a couple years' worth of so much information! I had been tracking so much all in that one place, so when it all disappeared in an instant of clumsy thumbs I was sooo sad. I definitely relate to the grief of losing your personal data and can understand the anger too.
Oh that's so tragic! What intimate and magical data too (and important for well-being!).
I was mulling this over after Roe v. Wade was overturned, because many people were mass deleting their period tracker apps out of (rightful) privacy concerns and a common recommendation was to track it by hand. But sometimes technological tools can be really helpful to track data, especially if they are monitoring things like sleep or exercise that we might not have the capacity to count ourselves. That provides a lot of value, and I was thinking about how some people might have to make a choice between privacy/criminalization and better health and how sad that is.
Yes! The choices we have about our data surveillance, like you mentioned in this newsletter and just now, are so tough! It's a strange world to be navigating, with such cost and such benefit.
I don't have a personal data loss story, but it makes me think of this lovely essay from years ago! https://onezero.medium.com/your-teenage-email-account-is-a-lost-time-capsule-a7627d53c466
Absolutely! I set reminders to log into several old accounts — like Neopets and Tumblr — just so they remain active and dodge the risk of being wiped.
Another effort to disaggregate AAPI data that's been doing good work for a while: https://aapidata.com/
Yes, I'm a big fan!
I cried once over accidentally deleting my period tracker app because I didn't have a backup setup for my data. I lost a couple years' worth of so much information! I had been tracking so much all in that one place, so when it all disappeared in an instant of clumsy thumbs I was sooo sad. I definitely relate to the grief of losing your personal data and can understand the anger too.
Oh that's so tragic! What intimate and magical data too (and important for well-being!).
I was mulling this over after Roe v. Wade was overturned, because many people were mass deleting their period tracker apps out of (rightful) privacy concerns and a common recommendation was to track it by hand. But sometimes technological tools can be really helpful to track data, especially if they are monitoring things like sleep or exercise that we might not have the capacity to count ourselves. That provides a lot of value, and I was thinking about how some people might have to make a choice between privacy/criminalization and better health and how sad that is.
Yes! The choices we have about our data surveillance, like you mentioned in this newsletter and just now, are so tough! It's a strange world to be navigating, with such cost and such benefit.
I started using it too after switching from Google Podcasts. Would've recommended it if you asked 😃
Found a podcast app you liked?
I've been enjoying the free version of Pocket Casts!