Assessment of the Data Sharing and Privacy Practices of Smartphone Apps for Depression and Smoking Cessation | Zendy

Kit Huckvale | Zendy; John Torous | Zendy; Mark Larsen | Zendy

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Assessment of the Data Sharing and Privacy Practices of Smartphone Apps for Depression and Smoking Cessation

Author(s) -

Kit Huckvale,

John Torous,

Mark Larsen

Publication year - 2019

Publication title -

jama network open

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 3.278

H-Index - 39

ISSN - 2574-3805

DOI - 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.2542

Subject(s) - privacy policy , internet privacy , scrutiny , smoking cessation , mental health , health care , psychology , information privacy , medicine , business , political science , psychiatry , computer science , pathology , law

Key Points Question Do the privacy policies of popular smartphone applications (apps) for depression and smoking cessation describe accurately whether data will be processed by commercial third parties? Findings In this cross-sectional study of 36 top-ranked apps for depression and smoking cessation available in public app stores, 29 transmitted data to services provided by Facebook or Google, but only 12 accurately disclosed this in a privacy policy. Meaning Health care professionals prescribing apps should not rely on disclosures about data sharing in health app privacy policies but should reasonably assume that data will be shared with commercial entities whose own privacy practices have been questioned and, if possible, should consider only apps with data transmission behaviors that have been subject to direct scrutiny.

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