Most mental health, prayer apps bring security, privacy concerns

Threatpost reports that 28 of 32 mental health and prayer apps had a "Privacy Not Included" label and were insecure, while 25 apps were not able to adhere to the minimum security standards of Mozilla. Better Help, Better Stop Suicide, Woebot, Youper, Talkspace, and Pray.com were among the mental health and prayer apps with the worst user privacy settings, with Better Help and Better Stop Suicide having vague privacy policies, a Mozilla report revealed. Researchers also discovered that Pray.com, Youper, and Woebot facilitated personal information sharing with third parties, while Talkspace was found to collect substantial personal data from users, including their employers, chat transcripts, and geolocation information. "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," said report lead researcher Jen Caltrider.