Full Stop is a menstruation tracker for Urbit. Using Full Stop, users can record data, directly to their secure, personal server, about their periods (start, stop, flow, etc.) and sexual activity. Users will have discrete, fully private access to their health data through the Full Stop app which will be available on popular mobile phone operating systems.
Access to health care for menstruating people is distributed inequally, geographically. In some countries, access to various reproductive health care procedures is legislatively restricted, or criminalized. Many countries are still involved in internal political struggles to define the contours of access to reproductive health care, and where political favor changes, the People with Periods (e.g. Witches with WAP, Clitizens) in that country are subjected to uncertainty and doubt, not to mention existential dread resulting from the fact that their body is, as it seems, someone else's choice.
Recently, potential changes to reproductive health care access in the United States have led period-havers to delete their digital period trackers from their devices out of concern that data provided to such apps could be used by State actors to identify pregnancies and, moreover, potential, unexpected terminations of pregnancies, for use in criminal prosecutions (under a theory of abortive health care illegality).
Period tracking app Flo (no relation to Progressive) has recently announced that it is "developing a new feature called 'anonymous mode' that will allow users to remove their name, email address, and technical identifiers from their profile". iOS App Store #1 period tracker Stardust (astrology tie-ins) has a privacy policy that explicitly states that it will turn over data to authorities whether required by law, or not.
Even the EFF has identified that, while it might not be necessary to delete a period tracking app, users should become familiar with the privacy policy of the app and make sure that it aligns with their risk profile. Further, they recommend considering all apps as a permeable surface through which data about a potential pregnancy could leak (suggesting that users should use E2E encrypted messaging, etc, as an additional security measure).
At the risk of sounding flippant, Urbit fixes a great deal of this for users without interrupting their computing experience. Urbit provides an encrypted communication layer with identity primatives (affording identity assurances in comms). Urbit also acts as a personal server, avoiding the concern of corporate leaks of biometric data entirely. And yet, Urbit is available on a user's Phone as an interface for inputting data, maintaining the convenience of otherwise-centralized services. A period tracker on Urbit is simple solution to a very complex problem. It also presents some interesting development questions, reviewed below.
Full Stop helps you track your period and period-related-accessory-phenomena on a secure, private, personal server called an urbit. Full Stop is accessed like a traditional phone application, available on major phone operating systems. Full Stop will include basic Push Notifications which will, given the need to pass through Apple's Great Filter, never include private information and should provide no indicia of a user's health conditions (or lack thereof) in their frequency or rate of occurrence.
On first opening Full Stop, a user should enter a simple PIN, in addition to their +code required to log into their Urbit, generally. This pin provides a final layer of security, on top of their Phone's security, on top of Urbit's encryption and login requirements, as an additional precaution to ensure private access, only.
After establishing their security PIN, Full Stop will proceed as with most period tracker applications: