According to a new study from researchers at Mozilla, mental health apps have worse privacy protections than most other types of apps, The Verge reported May 2.
The Mozilla team analyzed 32 mental health and prayer apps, and 29 had concerning privacy practices, the report said. The worst offenders were the apps Better Help, Youper, Woebot, Better Stop Suicide, Pray.com and Talkspace.
Woebot, an artificial-intelligence-based mental healthcare chat platform, collects user information from third parties and shares it for advertising purposes, and Talkspace, an online therapy provider, collects user chat transcripts, the report said.
"They operate like data-sucking machines with a mental health app veneer," Mozilla researcher Misha Rykov said in a statement, according to The Verge. "In other words: a wolf in sheep's clothing."