Inside STAT: Mental health apps are scooping up sensitive data. Who benefits?

(ADOBE)

Mental health apps — to help manage conditions such as depression and anxiety — hold promise for potentially improving treatment. But some apps on the market put consumers’ privacy at risk while providing only marginal or unknown benefits, experts in health technology say. And in some cases, without customers’ knowledge, makers of mental health apps are using the data collected to create products that have nothing to do with health care. Increasingly, experts are concerned that this kind of data misuse could lead to serious consequences, including targeted advertising that could exacerbate people’s mental health concerns. Just think of a person with a gambling problem being served ads for discounted airfare to Las Vegas. STAT contributor Dana Smith has more here.