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did you know that mental health apps may be sharing your data?
if you seek therapy through online applications, when it comes to privacy, it’s user beware.
feb 24 2020
2 minute read
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the rise of therapy and mental health applications has made seeking out therapy easier than ever. but while your privacy is guaranteed as soon as you walk into a clinic, can the same be said for your mental health app?
as health technology grows, there’s a lot of debate over how “private” your health information is once entrusted to an app.
a jezebel investigation recently revealed that better help, a popular app that lets you chat with a licensed therapist, may be sharing some sensitive information with advertisers, other websites and apps. while most users do freely share information on the internet, sharing health data and mental health data is among the most valuable and controversial.
“though social media conditions a person to share every aspect of their being, at every moment, a company automatically telling snapchat and pinterest you’re signing up for therapy still feels pretty spooky, even if it’s covered in the fine print,” write authors molly osberg and dhruv mehrotra. “it also brings up questions about how a person’s intimate, supposedly private sessions might be exploited by advertisers, an industry that isn’t exactly known for operating in good faith.”
they say that while there’s no reason to believe that the information companies like better help is collecting would be weaponized, stigmas in mental health are still a concern.
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several other investigations and studies have also found health apps tracking data and sharing it with others. one wall street journal investigation found that the period tracking app flo shared users’ period dates and pregnancy plans with facebook. other studies have found that some medical apps have security flaws or are sharing data with other advertisers and companies .
john torous, director of digital psychiatry at beth israel deconess medical center in boston, massachusetts, led a study that looked at how clear the privacy policies of depression and smoking cessation apps were regarding the sharing of users with third parties like facebook and google. he told the verge that the fact that people might not know how their apps are sharing their data worries him.
“it’s really hard to make an informed decision about using an app if you don’t even know who’s going to get access to information about you,” he said. “it’s important to trust but verify — to say where is your healthcare data going.”
while it’s unknown what happens to this data, there are precautions you can take to protect your sensitive information, said torous.
“you want to pause twice and [ask yourself], ‘do i trust the person who made the app and do i understand where this data is going?’” he said. “taking a few minutes to check the app’s privacy policy (if it has one), seeing if it’s been updated recently, and checking if the app’s come from a reliable source like a medical centre or the government.”
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while he agrees that none of those questions are going to guarantee a good result, asking them will help with the screening process. but the bottom line is that there aren’t any measures in place for the long-term yet, and until we can determine how to be more responsible on mental health apps, it’s user beware.
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