Forbes May 3, 2022
Emma Woollacott

A review of mental health and prayer apps has concluded that they offer poorer privacy and security than any other type of app.

Mozilla’s investigation of 32 mental health and prayer apps, including Talkspace, Better Help, Calm, and Glorify found that 28 raised strong concerns over user data management, while 25 failed to meet Mozilla’s minimum security standards, such as requiring strong passwords and managing security updates and vulnerabilities.

Despite dealing with sensitive issues — depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, domestic violence, eating disorders and PTSD — these apps routinely share data, allow weak passwords, target vulnerable users with personalized ads, and feature vague and poorly written privacy policies. Some harvest additional data from third-party platforms such as Facebook, from elsewhere...

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Topics: Apps, Digital Health, Healthcare System, Mental Health, mHealth, Patient / Consumer, Privacy / Security, Provider, Survey / Study, Technology, Trends
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