Online counseling company BetterHelp has agreed to pay $7.8 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it improperly shared sensitive customer data with companies including Facebook and Snapchat, even after promising to keep it private. The proposed order, announced by the FTC on Thursdayit would prohibit the same behavior in the future and would require BetterHelp to make some changes to the way it handles customer data.
According to the regulator, the registration process for the company’s service “promised consumers that it would not use or disclose their personal health data except for limited purposes.” However, the FTC alleges that the company instead “used and disclosed email addresses, IP addresses, and consumer health questionnaire information on Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest for advertising purposes.”
The FTC also says the company gave customer service agents fake scripts to try to reassure users that it wasn’t sharing personally identifiable or personal health information after a breach. February 2020 report from Jezebel He exposed some of his practices. the Commission complaint accuses the company of misleading customers by putting a HIPAA seal on its website, even though “no government agency or other third party reviewed [BetterHelp]HIPAA information practices to comply with HIPAA, let alone determined that the practices met HIPAA requirements.”
“BetterHelp betrayed consumers’ most personal health information for profit,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s office of consumer protection, according to the agency’s news release.
If the FTC’s order ends, the $7.8 million would go to customers who signed up for the service between August 1, 2017, and December 31, 2020. Here are some of the other things BetterHelp would need to do:
The requirements would largely be in place for the next 20 years. The FTC says the settlement will go through a 30-day public comment period before a final decision is made on its implementation. However, it’s worth noting that the proposal passed the committee with a 4-0 vote, so it appears to have quite a bit of support.
By accepting the order, BetterHelp is neither admitting nor denying many of the allegations made against it by the FTC. In a statement posted on its website, the company calls its practices “industry standard,” but says, “we understand the FTC’s desire to set new precedents around consumer marketing, and we’re pleased to resolve this matter with the agency.” It also clarifies that information such as “member names or clinical data from therapy sessions” is never shared with “advertisers, publishers, social media platforms, or any other similar third party.”
It’s not the first time concerns have been raised about BetterHelp or other online mental health providers. Last year, lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), sent a letter to BetterHelp requesting information about what data the service collected, how it was used, and how you interacted with and disclosed your dealings. with online advertisers and social media companies. Mozilla has also said that when it reviewed 32 mental health apps, it found that 28 of them shared people’s information with other companies.
While selling people’s mental health data isn’t necessarily illegal, even if they haven’t consented, according to a report of the washington post — The FTC has been cracking down on companies it determines are doing so inappropriately. Earlier this year, it fined GoodRx $1.5 million for sending health data to companies like Google and Facebook and banned it from doing so in the future.
