BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Data Flows &\; Menstruation: How Users of Period Trackers Navig ate the Datafication &\; Commodification of their Menstrual Cycles - Dr Stefanie Felsberger\, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy DTSTART:20241029T131000Z DTEND:20241029T140000Z UID:TALK223780@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Dr Amelia Hassoun DESCRIPTION:Tracking health indicators and vital signs has become increasi ngly popular and\nlucrative. The fastest growing sub-sector of the recent surge in self-tracking or fitness\nand health technology are fertility app s or period tracking apps. These applications are\noften regarded as and p resent themselves as medical tools to enhance women’s\nunderstanding of their bodies\, but in fact barely any fertility app lives up to medical\ns tandards nor needs to undergo certification. The applications promise scie ntific and\nexact knowledge about people’s bodies and cycles through dat a collection. This\nmethod\, developers claim\, provides more precise insi ghts than people could ever\nachieve trough self-observation. Yet\, period trackers are an integral part of the growing\nmarket of self-tracking tec hnology. Their business model is the same as most\ncompanies in the digita l economy: to either sell data as commodity or to sell insights\nderived f rom analysis of this data for targeted advertising.\nMy presentation explo res how users of cycle trackers access information about their\nmenstrual cycles and how they understand and navigate data commodification in their\ neveryday lives. Through a data justice lens\, I introduce questions of po wer inequalities to\ndiscourses on privacy\, moving beyond a focus on indi vidual rights and ownership of\ndata to address material aspects of and in justices built into data infrastructures. I\nquestion what ways of knowing menstruation CTA data can provide users. I demonstrate\nthat CTAs are des igned for a cis-heterosexual user in monogamous relationships with a\nnorm ative regular cycle and contribute a novel contextualisation of CTAs in th e historical\neffort to make menstruation calculable and reproduction plan -able. I contribute insights\ninto how the data-driven lens of menstruatio n and encoding of normal cycle definitions\nshape how participants track. LOCATION:Richard King room\, Darwin College END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR