Unveiling Privacy Measures in Mental Health Applications

Mental health conditions have become a global public health issue, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To cope with the increasing demand for mental health services, many people have turned to smartphone applications that offer various mental health solutions, such as therapy, counseling, and self-help. However, these applications also pose significant privacy risks for their users, as they collect and share sensitive personal and health information with third parties, often without adequate consent or transparency. In this study, we examine the privacy policies of popular mental health smartphone applications using the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), a widely recognized privacy framework. Our objective is to assess the extent to which these applications adhere to the FIPPs guidelines and to identify the gaps and challenges in their privacy practices. We hope that our findings can inform and guide policy makers and application developers to design more user-centric and robust privacy policies that ensure the safety and security of users’ information.