Breaking News!

Today, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced they are banning popular mental health app BetterHelp from sharing sensitive mental health data for targeted advertising purposes. They also ordered the company to pay $7.8 million dollars for sharing consumers sensitive data with advertisers like Facebook.

“At several points in the signup process, BetterHelp promised consumers that it would not use or disclose their personal health data except for limited purposes, such as to provide counseling services. Despite these promises, BetterHelp used and revealed consumers’ email addresses, IP addresses, and health questionnaire information to Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest for advertising purposes, according to the FTC’s complaint.”

The FTC’s settlement with BetterHelp is an important  — and desperately needed — rein in of deceptive data collection by untrustworthy health apps.

For years, mental health apps have amassed, sold, and shared people’s intimate health data with little transparency or accountability. Our recent *Privacy Not Included guide found that nearly all of the top mental health apps — including BetterHelp — fail to meet basic privacy and security standards.  

We hope the FTC’s action against BetterHelp is just the first step — and that companies take this as a warning to better protect people’s health data.

To go further, read our review of BetterHelp and consider making a donation to the Mozilla Foundation. All of our research and advocacy efforts are donor-supported to ensure our reviews are free from advertiser influence.

Ashley Boyd

Vice President, Global Advocacy
Mozilla Foundation