FTC says online counseling service BetterHelp pushed people into handing over health information – and broke its privacy promises
In the hierarchy of confidential data, health information ranks right up there.
FTC says online counseling service BetterHelp pushed people into handing over health information – and broke its privacy promises
- Thread starter playahaitian
- Start date
Teletherapy can really help, and really hurt
From privacy breaches to bad providers, teletherapy services often come with a hidden cost.
www.vox.com
BetterHelp, an online therapy service, has been involved in controversy over its handling of user data:
- Data sharing
[COLOR=var(--m3c10)]In 2020, a news site reported that BetterHelp was sharing users' health information with third parties, including advertisers like Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest. The FTC alleged that BetterHelp used this information to target users with ads on social media. - Privacy promises
[COLOR=var(--m3c10)]The FTC alleged that BetterHelp broke its promises to keep users' information private. The FTC says that BetterHelp collected users' health information, IP addresses, and email addresses, but then used it to target users with ads. In 2023, BetterHelp settled with the FTC and agreed to pay $7.8 million in refunds to affected customers. BetterHelp also agreed to:
- Stop sharing users' health data for advertising
- Stop sharing users' personal information for re-targeting
- Ask for consent before using users' health information
- Revise its privacy policy
- Implement a data retention
- BetterHelp says that the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing. They say that they were following industry standard practices, and that they did not share users' private information with third parties
- Privacy promises
Awwww man they use to get promoted heavily by certain podcast and YouTubers.. not a good look for those individuals who use to promote that company
Lina Khan not fuckin’ around.
Similar threads
