Smoking, depression apps sell data to Google and Facebook, study finds

The pitch: Health apps for users who are battling depression or want to quit smoking.

The problem: Many of the apps designed to track a user’s progress are sharing the personal details they collect with third parties, such as Google and Facebook, without consent.

That’s according to a study published this month in the journal JAMA Network Open. Researchers say the findings are especially important in mental health, given social stigmas and the risks of having sensitive information shared unknowingly. And since many health apps aren’t subject to government regulation, researchers say, consumers and clinicians must contend with what information is being entered into these apps — and who else can access it.

“Digital data doesn’t go away,” said John Torous, a co-author of the report. “A part of the risk is that we don’t fully know who is going to put this data together, when and where it’s going to show up again and in what context. … Data seems to end up in the hands of the wrong people more and more.”

Torous heads the digital psychiatry division at a Harvard Medical School-affiliated teaching hospital, where he also is a staff psychiatrist and a faculty member. He said there needs to be a “wake-up call” in the digital health field because, “We can’t treat people’s personal data like it’s the personal property of these app developers.”