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Mental health tracking apps have been widely adopted worldwide, assisting people in breaking down anxiety, depression and other mental struggles on a daily basis.
A survey conducted by NordVPN revealed 97 per cent of Australians use technology to unwind or relax, 75 per cent use devices as mental health tools and that one in three (34 per cent) track their physical and mental health with a mobile app.
However, these apps are not without their security risks, with many of these free apps with minimal security, require users to share their thoughts and emotions, keep journals and more.
The same survey revealed that eight out of 10 of those who use health tracking apps use free ones and don’t care about the privacy policies of these apps, showing that Australians are prioritising low prices over data security.
Security features such as multifactor authentication and encryption ranked low in importance as well.
“Our survey showed that more than half of Australian health app users provide health information to the apps, such as blood pressure, eating habits, weight, and medical conditions,” said Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cyber security expert at NordVPN.
“This also includes mental health data, such as that about moods, habits, and even thoughts. Storing this sensitive information in poorly secured free apps puts it at risk.”
This data, being personal and sensitive, could be used by a threat actor to hold an individual to ransom, with the consequence of this sensitive information, which could contain details of other people best kept hidden, being posted online.
“Data like this can be used to create detailed user profiles containing sensitive information that could potentially be used to discriminate against someone or exclude them, like by denying them insurance or job opportunities based on their physical or mental health,” said Warmenhoven.
A report conducted by Mozilla found that 90 per cent of mental health apps don’t meet minimum privacy standards, and of the apps it tested, 19 out of 32 mental health apps still include “*Privacy Not Included” warning labels.
NordVPN advises that there are a number of measures that users can take to protect themselves and their data, such as using a disposable email address rather than a real one when signing up for these free apps, setting the privacy settings to bolster security as much as possible, inputting the minimum required information and using apps that are dependable and secure, from official stores and websites.
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