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Stardust's E2E Encryption Claims Were Debunked in 72 Hours
Stardust surged to #1 after claiming E2E encryption on Dobbs day. TechCrunch found it sharing data with Mixpanel. What this means for tracker privacy.
Day 0: June 24, 2022 (Dobbs Day) The Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24, 2022, overturning Roe v. Wade. Within hours, millions of people began searching for private alternatives to their period tracking apps. Stardust CEO Rachel Moranis posted a TikTok that day claiming Stardust was "the first period tracker to implement end to end encryption." The timing was calculated. Fear about reproductive data privacy was at its peak, and Stardust positioned itself as the answer. The response was immediate. Stardust's daily downloads jumped from approximately 3,000 per day to 200,000 on June 25, a 4,400% surge. The app reached 1 on the US App Store, surpassing TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. According to Sensor Tower, 82% of Stardust's total 400,000+ lifetime installs occurred in just two days: June 25 and 26. Stardust had found an enormous market overnight. The only problem: the encryption claim was false. Day 3: June 27, TechCrunch Investigation Sarah Perez and security editor Zack Whittaker at TechCrunch ran a network traffic analysis on the Stardust app. They found that Stardust shared users' phone numbers with Mixpanel, a third pa