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Submitted via IRC for ErnestGoesToSpace
Free apps marketed to people with depression or who want to quit smoking are hemorrhaging user data to third parties like Facebook and Google — but often don't admit it in their privacy policies, a new study reports. This study is the latest to highlight the potential risks of entrusting sensitive health information to our phones.
Though most of the easily-found depression or smoking cessation apps in the Android and iOS stores share data, only a fraction of them actually disclose this. The findings add to a string of worrying revelations about what apps are doing with the health information we entrust to them. For instance, a Wall Street Journal investigation recently revealed the period tracking app Flo shared users' period dates and pregnancy plans with Facebook. And previous studies have reported health apps with security flaws or that shared data with advertisers and analytics companies.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 21 2019, @08:28PM
In the early days of surveillance capitalism it was becoming apparent that you were being profiled through your Google searches, and your profile was available from anyone willing to pay, up to the government.
Now you have stupid apps for any condition and every feeling, and they're all "free". How do they pay the programmers? How does management get the boner to even hire programmers to develop this? Obviously because your data is on sale, and the app gives them access a browser frontend does not (yet).