Mental health has never enjoyed the same levels of recognition and support as other areas of health. Culturally, and for a long time, It has been a huge taboo that was not talked about and that carried a gigantic stigma. From schizophrenia to depression, suffering from this type of illness and disorder has been associated, for a long time, with the added bonus of having to hide it as a self-protection measure.
Although there is still a long way to go, Fortunately little by little the stigma is being mitigatedso we can expect that in the medium term, mental health will not be something associated with dozens of labels, and a fairly clear signal in this regard can be found in the proliferation of apps dedicated to mental health, apps associated with services related to the same in one way or another, and that contribute to the necessary standardization.
The bad news, however, is that this type of app could be compromising the privacy of its users, according to a study carried out by the Mozilla Foundation, which after analyze 32 apps related to mental health has come to the conclusion that 28 of them do not meet the standards determined by the foundation to consider that they are respectful of the privacy of its users, based on four criteria:
- What does the company do with user data?
- How a user can control their own data.
- The previous trajectory of the company in terms of user data protection.
- How the company complies with Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards.
The problem is that, as I mentioned at the beginning, mental health is still subject to a significant stigma on the part of society (fortunately diminishing), so that insufficient compliance with security standards can mean that user data , who trust these services thinking that their information remains safe, pThey can be very upset when they see that this is not the case.and that commercial interests have prevailed over the protection of user privacy.
The study analyzes 32 services, all of them from the United States, so we cannot extrapolate its results to other geographies. However, it is a key reminder that, when choosing a service and/or app related to mental health, we must be especially careful when it comes to reviewing their privacy policies. And, if possible, look for elements that can help us verify effective compliance with them.
