<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/10/report-most-mental-health-prayer-apps-have-abysmal-security-and-privacy-standards/>
"From the Internet of very broken things to telecom networks, the state of U.S.
privacy and user security is arguably pathetic. It’s 2022 and we still don’t
have even a basic privacy law for the Internet era, in large part because
over-collection of data is too profitable to a wide swath of industries, which,
in turn, lobby Congress to do either nothing, or the
wrong thing.
Apps routinely aren’t much of an exception. Mozilla’s latest
*Privacy Not
Included guide analyzed the privacy and security standards of 32 mental health
and prayer apps, and gave 29 of them a “privacy not included” warning label
indicating they failed to adhere to even basic user privacy standards:
“The vast majority of mental health and prayer apps are exceptionally
creepy. They track, share, and capitalize on users’ most intimate personal
thoughts and feelings, like moods, mental state, and biometric data. Turns
out, researching mental health apps is not good for your mental health, as
it reveals how negligent and craven these companies can be with our most
intimate personal information.”
The problems included an over-collection and sale of data (including the
collection of some mental health chat transcripts), poor password creation
standards, and nebulous and undercooked privacy policies. Better Help, Youper,
Better Stop Suicide, Woebot, Talkspace, and Pray.com were deemed the worst
offenders. Only three of the 32 app makers responded to a Mozilla request for
comment."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
