Mental Health and Stop Smoking Apps Share Your Secrets

With regard to topics such as mental health or addiction, one must be able to trust that an application designed to help you through a difficult and personal problem would take your privacy seriously. But a new study suggests that not only is this not the case, but these apps are coughing on your giant tech data like-surprise, surprise Facebook and Google. And not only some of these applications failing say you about it, but they may also be doing it if you do not use the social connections that link these accounts with so-called apps.

The study conducted in January of last year by researchers from the University of New South Wales and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry and published Friday at the JAMA Open Network Journal has reviewed a total of 36 high ranking free applications for smoking cessation and depression available in Android and iOS application stores in the United States and Australia. The seven included apps available for both, as well as 14 others exclusive to iOS and 15 available only on Android.

For each of these popular health and apps, which mental wellness have been tested on a Huawei Nexus 6P and iPhone 6S the researchers have reviewed their privacy policies, including those that are available in their app descriptions, on their associated and linked websites or included in the application itself. They found that 25 of the 36 apps reviewed had some form of privacy, but the policy is here where it becomes difficult.

For those who have privacy policies, the researchers found that only 23 apps were disclosing the possibility that a user's data could be shared with a third party, with 16 disclosing that the data could be shared with advertisers and 14 indicating data could be shared with advertisers and analytics services. Only one application said that no data would be shared with third parties, but six of these applications specifically stated that not like email address 'strong personal identifiers', name or date of birth, would be shared with advertisers.

But in reviewing the data transmission of each iOS application and applications, the researchers found that 33 of 36 applications or 92 percent-shared data with one or more third parties. They also observed that 29 of these 36 popular health and mental cessation apps were sharing information with services operated by Facebook (12) or Google (28), but only a few were doing that clearly in their privacy policies (six apps for Facebook and 12 the case of Google). In applications that included social connections for these platforms, the researchers wrote, the data sharing "took place regardless of whether the social login function was used. "

Neither Facebook nor Google immediately returned a request for comment. We asked researchers behind the study that they studied apps but did not receive an immediate response.

"Transmission of data to third-party entities was widespread, occurring in 33 of the top 36 ranked apps (92%) for depression and smoking cessation, but most apps failed to provide transparent information of these practices, "the authors of the study. "Commonly observed problems included the lack of a written confidentiality policy, the omission of the policy text describing the transmission by a third party (or for these transmissions to be reported nonspecifically), or the lack of description of the jurisdictions. who would process the data. "

In nine of the 33 cases of health applications or the cessation of sharing user data, the researchers found that a shared application and a user name eight shared a device-related ID of the user. # 39; user. Two apps exchanged information including the use of substances or personal health information, and in 26 cases, shared applications pseudonymous advertising identifiers that researchers noted: "can be used to track user behavior in the past. over time and across different products and technology platforms. "

However, the researchers stated that, other than this information, they did not notice that "other personal or sensitive information (such as full names, passwords, birth dates or medical data)" was shared with third. In addition, they said, their study did not examine whether user data that was surreptitiously being shipped to third parties, was used for targeted advertising.

Even so, the study raises important questions about the security of the information we share with apps designed to help us lead healthier lives. In tricky situations like mental health and addiction, the last thing everyone needs is targeted advertisements that try to trap them in some sort of cure for snake oil – or worse. Steven Chan, a physician with the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, told The Verge that advertisers could target an individual trying to quit an addiction, such as smoking, with ads for another , as seem alcohol that is not too far from the infernal realm of possibility.

The researchers, meanwhile, write that the study aims to highlight the necessary revisions of the privacy policy and the implementation of technology initiatives to better protect users of these types of applications, especially as we depend more and more on our devices. monitor our health and well-being.

"As smartphones continue to gain capacity to collect new forms of personal, biometric and health information, it is imperative that the health care community respond by proposing new methods and processes to examine applications and make sure they stay safe and protect personal health information, "they said.

[JAMA Network Open]