Mental health apps offer many benefits, helping users to deal with issues ranging from anxiety and depression to PTSD and eating disorders. And since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the popularity of these platforms has grown steadily amidst an unfolding global mental health crisis.

But while mental health apps offer convenience and easier access to care, many lack adequate security and data privacy measures, potentially leaving vulnerable users exposed.

According to Mozilla’s latest Privacy Not Included guide, mental health apps are among the worst products researchers have reviewed in recent years.

As part of the study, researchers investigated the privacy and security practices of 32 mental health and prayer apps, including Talkspace, Better Help, Calm and Glorify.

The investigation raised serious concerns over privacy standards at a host of apps, with 28 given a warning label indicating “strong concerns” over user data management.

Despite dealing with highly sensitive mental health issues, a number of apps routinely share data with third parties and harvest additional data from other platforms present on a user’s smartphone, such as Facebook.

Notably, researchers found that some apps even harness data to target vulnerable users with personalised ads.

Jen Caltrider, lead researcher on the study, said the practices of mental health apps are “exceptionally creepy” given the intimate nature of the data they collect and hold.

“They track, share and capitalise on users’ most intimate personal thoughts and feelings, like moods, mental state and biometric data,” she said.

“Turns out, researching mental health apps is not good for your mental health, as it reveals how negligent and craven these companies can be.”

The Worst Offenders

The apps with the worst privacy and security practices include Better Help, Woebot, Better Stop Suicide and Talkspace, according to Mozilla.

Woebot was found to collect sensitive data on users from third-party sources to share information for advertising purposes while other apps such as Talkspace recorded user chat transcripts.

Better Help and Better Stop Suicide were also found to use “incredibly vague and messy privacy policies”.

Misha Rykov, the Mozilla Researcher who co-developed guide, described some mental health apps as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in these apps despite their flaws. In some cases, they operate like data-sucking machines with a mental health app veneer,” she said.

Just two apps featured in the Mozilla research were deemed to be trustworthy and boasted adequate privacy/security standards.

These include PTSD Coach, an app made by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and the AI Chatbot Wysa – both of which were found to “really value users’ privacy”.

Responding to the Mozilla investigation, a spokesperson for Talkspace told DIGIT that the report “lacks context” and contains “major inaccuracies”.

“We have one of the most comprehensive privacy policies in the industry, and it is misleading to assert we collect user data or chat transcripts for anything other than the provision of treatment,” the spokesperson said.

“We recently updated our privacy policy to be more transparent with customers and provide clarity on data-sharing policies. Talkspace’s Notice of Privacy Practices also provides additional information on how data is used in collaboration with the updated privacy policy,” they added.

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