Anonymous hacked and deleted data from period tracker apps to protect abortion seekers

THE hacker group Anonymous claims they’ve “hacked and deleted” data from menstrual tracking apps to protect the identity of potential abortion seekers.

The most recent allegations made by the hacktivists come at a time when many women in the United States have started deleting period tracking apps in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion rule.

“Data from menstruation tracking apps have been hacked and destroyed in order to conceal the possibility of an abortion in states that have recently passed legislation criminalizing abortion, the hacker group tweeted on Thursday.

Women in the United States are understandably concerned that the information gathered by these applications may be used against them in the future in criminal proceedings in states where abortion has been made illegal.

In May, after a draft of the court’s judgment that signaled they would overturn Roe v. Wade was released to the public, women started uninstalling the applications from their phones.

However, following the court’s decision to overturn the federal government’s right to abortion, it has grown even worse.

Period tracking applications such as Flo have just announced the addition of a new feature called “anonymous mode,” which would give users the ability to erase their name, email address, physical address, and other identifiers from their profiles.

After the judgement was handed down by the Supreme Court on June 24, Flo wrote in a tweet, “You deserve the freedom to secure your data.”

“We will be soon implementing a ‘Anonymous Mode,’ which will remove your personal identification from your Flo account in order to prevent anyone from being able to identify you.”

Flo is one of the most popular health applications available, having collected more than 48 million users who are actively using the program.