FTC reaches deal with online therapy company over data misuse claims

The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with online therapy company BetterHelp over allegations it shared customers’ sensitive health data with third parties for advertising purposes, according to documents from the agency’s in-house court filed this morning and reviewed by POLITICO.

Under the settlement, which still has to be finalized by a judge, BetterHelp is barred from sharing health data, including sensitive information about its customers mental health struggles, with Meta and others for advertising purposes. It will use the $7.8 million to provide affected BetterHelp customers with partial refunds.

In addition to the fine and a ban on sharing health data to advertise, the FTC requires BetterHelp to get express consent from consumers to share their data for any additional purposes and to implement a privacy program as well as limits on how long they store personal data. The company will also have to ensure that any third parties will delete data they had received from the company it sent data to previously.

What? I should get a piece of that!

This is ridiculous. Violating patient confidentiality like this deserves a much heavier fine. How about the patients get a class action lawsuit going on to take even more of a chunk out of the platform as recompense for BetterHelp's behavior?

Please see our response to this settlement and our privacy policy here.

Thanks for reporting. Read any privacy policy for private online health and crisis service in USA (as if you're going to do that). People, their sensitive words and info are commodities. Just found this example earlier today.

This seems like a strange amount-the price of a luxury condo for violating the most personal information people shared with them?

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