How Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail Spectacularly at Privacy

Jen Caltrider: “It is wrong of me to say a good place to start learning about the privacy concerns of mental health apps is the buyer’s guide we created at Privacy Not Included? Because I’m rather proud of this important work and would love for you to check it out.”

JC: “Good old Consumer Reports. You can always count on them for solid research and reporting. They looked into the privacy of seven mental health apps in 2021 and raised their warning about these apps during the heart of the pandemic.”

JC: “Want to go deep into the problems surrounding mental health apps and online therapy? Make yourself a cup of tea (or something stronger) and settle in with this great article from The Cut.”

JC: “Strict health privacy laws like HIPAA cover the contents of the conversations you’re having with your online therapist. But they don’t cover the fact that you’re talking to a therapist. That’s the sort of information Jezebel points out companies like Better Help can share with Facebook and others. Yup, Facebook can know if you’re seeing an online therapist, when, and how often. And it’s all completely legal and normal in our data economy. This article is well researched and eye-opening.”

JC: “This New York Times piece about popular online therapy app Talkspace is the stuff of nightmares. Seriously, don’t read it before bed.”

JC: “There are somewhere between 10,000 - 20,000 mental health apps available today. Researchers have only been able to look into a handful of them as they explode around the world. I enjoyed reading about what researchers know about them so far (spoiler: it’s not much).”

JC: “AI chatbots for mental health are a thing. And why not? For some, myself included, chatting with a bot is easier than chatting with a real, live human being. But whoa nelly! They raise a host of questions in the process. I love how this Gizmodo piece lays it all out.”

JC: “The perspective of a mental health app co-founder (who has since left the company) who understands the risks of these apps and offers solutions. Yes please!”

JC: “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

JC: “One thing I thought about while researching the privacy of apps that connect you with a therapist online was just what do the therapist think of all this? Here’s one therapist’s disturbing take.”

JC: “For many, prayer apps are mental health apps. Buzzfeed News did a deep dive into Christian prayer apps like Pray.com and found investors see $$$ in the personal information of those looking to get closer to God. It’s as icky as it sounds.”

JC: “Does it seem weird that one of the most downloaded Bible apps is created by a Chinese-based for-profit mobile gaming company? For some (me included), it raised some eyebrows. For others, spreading the word of God is all that matters.”

JC: “Privacy policies (and I read a lot of them) love to crow about how they can anonymize your data and then do just about anything they want with it because it’s no longer linked to you. NOT SO FAST! Researchers found it’s actually pretty easy to re-identify de-identified data. Sorry for adding to your nightmares.”