Thread by @mb

🚩There’s much criticism of VC-funded “queer wellness” brand For Them’s acquisition of Autostaddle.

Especially their (retracted) claim that their gender-tracking app uses “biometric data”, whatever that means.

Let’s dig deeper and see what’s going on.

defector.com/autostraddle-t…

💰 To gain access to the app, you must first join The Playground, a community that the company claims is “for you, for us, and For Them”. Telling us right up front who this benefits.

We’re to “invest” in this space, but unlike their actual investors, there are no returns here.

💸 Okay, how much does this membership cost, and what do you get out of the deal?

The company pushes a $6/month subscription that’s actually billed annually as the recommendation. Cool. 😒

You get the app, to be IG close friends with the brand???, discounts, & presale access.

🤔 So, what is the money used for? They claim it’s a gift to the community! Does that mean it will fund mutual aid or charity? Nope.

You’re funding a for-profit garment brand. This is a Patreon for a company that’s raised $2 million to sell binders.

techcrunch.com/2021/11/08/for…

💳 Alright, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the app’s amazing! Maybe the community is really special.

Let’s give them $15 for one month and find out, shall we?*

* Do not do this; it is very likely an extremely bad idea

📧 A few minutes after subscribing, you get a welcome email that lists some next steps:

1. Download the app (ok, i will 🫡)
2. Join our Close Friends! (don’t think we’re there yet)
3. Save $$$ (don’t need a binder, bestie?)
4. Check out the Queer Revolution you support (what?)

📲 Okay, so here’s the app on App Store.

Just from the screenshots, we’re in for a real bad time.

Not once have I wanted to “check in with my fluidity” or see my “gender aura”??

In fact, I’d prefer my gender not to be perceived by brands at all.

apps.apple.com/us/app/we-are-…

🕵🏼 Before we jump right into giving this random app a bunch of really sensitive data about ourselves & our gender, let’s check out their privacy policy? (linked in the App Store)

Last Updated: March 2022. The app has only existed since May 2023. Oh boy.

forthem.com/pages/privacy-…

📜The policy says nothing about how and where the app’s data is processed.

Instead, it focuses on how For Them ignores Do Not Track headers, targets us with behavioral advertising based on our data, and shares our information with any number of unnamed third parties. Great.💀

When asked about this on Instagram, For Them said, “VC firms have absolutely no access to our data. It is not sold nor shared to anyone other than the individual it belongs to if they choose to download it for their own reference.”

But that’s not legally guaranteed or proven.

🔎 If you review the self-reported Privacy screen in the App Store, you get a totally different story.

Here they claim to only use purchase history, user ID, and usage data for analytics. Everything else they collect is just to provide app functionality. I highly doubt it.

📲 With all that in mind, let’s launch the app for the first time.

Can’t wait to expand my gender joy, fuse with some tools, and evolve myself with data. 🤮

Making me enter my “chosen name”, not letting me skip or type pronouns, & requiring location and birthday point to the fact this is much less a trans-centered community, and much more a slapdash marketing gimmick.

Many trans people cannot or do not want to disclose this info.

🎚️ The app’s Reflect feature is a basic slider checkin that compresses the emotional lives of trans people into how much joy, euphoria, & confidence we feel. And then presents a tiny text box to journal into.

Saw yourself the $15/month and get yourself a notebook or something.

If this is how brands think queer and trans people want to be talked to, I don’t even know what to say.

✌️ Please grant camera access to capture selfie bestie.

👚 Another key feature of the app is called the Closet. lol, no issue with that name in this community.

It asks you to take photos of your fits and then categorize your looks with random nonsense descriptions that seem to have been written by someone who’s never met a transfem.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a community? Welp.

Yeah, that’s in there (sorta) but it’s pretty much dead on arrival because: they have a bug where all the group chats show 0 messages always, no one asked for this, it’s hidden behind an unlabeled button, and their community guidelines are the lowest effort I’ve ever seen.

📋 The app says it’ll pull together my journal entries into a PDF “to show my healthcare provider or therapist”

Two things:
1. This means they have access to my journal entries unencrypted on their server. Yikes. 😱
2. It doesn’t work at all. Tapping the button does nothing. 🤪

🧩 Other than a website link to their store, which again only sells binders, the only feature we haven’t covered is Puzzles. It’s nothing.

They partnered with @AmuseLabs who are then collecting your data, and served up crosswords and quizzes with broken images. It’s a ripoff.

@AmuseLabs 🕵🏻 For more information on how the Amuse folks are using the data they collect within the For Them app, you’ve gotta know to also read their privacy policy which isn’t linked by For Them anywhere, naturally.

amuselabs.com/privacy-policy/

@AmuseLabs 🧐 Monitor traffic from the app with @proxyman_app and you see more of what they’re doing:

1. Sending analytics events to @adaptyteam to maximize profit (no mention in privacy policy)
2. Uploading your selfies and journals to @Firebase and likely storing them unencrypted.

@AmuseLabs @proxyman_app @adaptyteam @Firebase 🔔 They also want notification permission to constantly spam you with stuff like “bespoke tips”, “queer joy” and “For Them news”.

While I may use they/them pronouns, I guarantee this news is not for me.

@AmuseLabs @proxyman_app @adaptyteam @Firebase 💬 While I can’t show “The GC” (group chat) because I worry about privacy, just know that it’s got many problems:

1. There are almost no transfems.
2. Basically no one posts regularly other than For Them staff.
3. The community guidelines are referenced but not linked anywhere.

@AmuseLabs @proxyman_app @adaptyteam @Firebase 🚫I disagree with their summary of the app.

Instead, I’d write:

The For Them app is a low-effort cash grab to exploit young trans people by charging them monthly to violate their privacy. Mainly, it exists to gather data, sell binders, & make money for venture capitalists.

Okay, it sucks. What now?

I hope no one uses this product as is.

I hope the founder of For Them learns from this and engages with the trans people who have criticized them rather than making misleading IG comments.

I hope that we stop making the same mistakes over and over.

I hope that instead of giving money to VC-funded wellness brands trying to exploit us with worthless subscriptions, you give some money to mutual aid run for and by trans folks.

I hope you advocate for trans rights, for trans media, and for real change. “Gender apps” aren’t it.

❤️ Here are a few places you could spend $15 per month that would probably do a lot more good than a For Them subscription lol:

@gendereveal:
@CallenLorde:
@TransLawCenter: genderpodcast.com/grant
callen-lorde.org/give/
transgenderlawcenter.org/thlf-donate/

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