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That Mental Health App Might Share your Data without Telling you

posted by mrpg on Sunday April 21 2019, @07:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the color-me-sane dept.

MrPlow writes:

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.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/20/18508382/apps-mental-health-smoking-cessation-data-sharing-privacy-facebook-google-advertising

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 22 2019, @03:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 22 2019, @03:43PM (#833422)

    Have fallen to individual greed, corporate/robber baron interests, and political corruption/collusion once again.

    Fear not young one, for it will never be spoken of in school and as long as you take your happy pills and watch reality on TV, you will never be the wiser. And pray that you don't, because big brother's eyes are far more watchful than they ever were in the movies...