Assessment of the Data Sharing and Privacy Practices of Smartphone Apps for Depression and Smoking Cessation

Huckvale, Kit; Torous, John; Larsen, Mark E.

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.2542

Cited by 227 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Examples of widespread data sharing with inadequate disclosure is also seen in health tech products. Huckvale et al found in a cross-sectional study of 36 top-ranked apps for smoking cessation and depression in public app stores, "29 transmitted data to services provided by Facebook or Google, but only 12 accurately disclosed this in a privacy policy" 13 .…”

Section: Data Rights and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Modernizing and designing evaluation frameworks for connected sensor technologies in medicine

Coravos

Doerr

Goldsack³

et al. 2020

npj Digit. Med.

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This manuscript is focused on the use of connected sensor technologies, including wearables and other biosensors, for a wide range of health services, such as collecting digital endpoints in clinical trials and remotely monitoring patients in clinical care. The adoption of these technologies poses five risks that currently exceed our abilities to evaluate and secure these products: (1) validation, (2) security practices, (3) data rights and governance, (4) utility and usability; and (5) economic feasibility. In this manuscript we conduct a landscape analysis of emerging evaluation frameworks developed to better manage these risks, broadly in digital health. We then propose a framework specifically for connected sensor technologies. We provide a pragmatic guide for how to put this evaluation framework into practice, taking lessons from concepts in drug and nutrition labels to craft a connected sensor technology label.npj Digital Medicine (2020) 3:37 ; https://doi.

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Section: Data Rights and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Modernizing and designing evaluation frameworks for connected sensor technologies in medicine

Coravos

Doerr

Goldsack³

et al. 2020

npj Digit. Med.

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show abstract

“…Transparency, therefore, is of the utmost importance. However, the literature is consistent in its illustration of the mHealth industry as being poorly compliant with the provision of appropriate privacy policies or Terms of Service agreements to users [84,89,90,[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113]. Where privacy policies do exist, they are often non-specific to the app in question, may not inform users if the policy is being updated or if their data is to be shared, and may not provide users the right to access their personal data or be otherwise HIPAA-noncompliant [107,108,110,[114][115][116].…”

Section: Informed Consent Privacy Policies and Access Controlmentioning

confidence: 96%

Developments in Privacy and Data Ownership in Mobile Health Technologies, 2016-2019

Galvin

DeMuro²

2020

Yearb Med Inform

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Objectives: To survey international regulatory frameworks that serve to protect privacy of personal data as a human right as well as to review the literature regarding privacy protections and data ownership in mobile health (mHealth) technologies between January 1, 2016 and June 1, 2019 in order to identify common themes. Methods: We performed a review of relevant literature available in English published between January 1, 2016 and June 1, 2019 from databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, as well as relevant legislative background material. Articles out of scope (as detailed below) were eliminated. We categorized the remaining pool of articles and discrete themes were identified, specifically: concerns around data transmission and storage, including data ownership and the ability to re-identify previously de-identified data; issues with user consent (including the availability of appropriate privacy policies) and access control; and the changing culture and variable global attitudes toward privacy of health data. Results: Recent literature demonstrates that the security of mHealth data storage and transmission remains of wide concern, and aggregated data that were previously considered “de-identified” have now been demonstrated to be re-identifiable. Consumer-informed consent may be lacking with regard to mHealth applications due to the absence of a privacy policy and/or to text that is too complex and lengthy for most users to comprehend. The literature surveyed emphasizes improved access control strategies. This survey also illustrates a wide variety of global user perceptions regarding health data privacy. Conclusion: The international regulatory framework that serves to protect privacy of personal data as a human right is diverse. Given the challenges legislators face to keep up with rapidly advancing technology, we introduce the concept of a “healthcare fiduciary” to serve the best interest of data subjects in the current environment.

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“…There are clearly data protection issues that must be considered, but this is one of the more difficult areas to assess. Whilst we might hope to rely on the claims about data security made by apps, the majority of top‐rated depression apps were recently found to share data with a third party, with many not disclosing this information in their privacy policy (Huckvale, Torous, & Larsen, ).…”

Section: How To Judge Health Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology Matters: Mental health apps – separating the wheat from the chaff

Bergin

Davies

2019

Child Adoles Ment Health

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Assessment of the Data Sharing and Privacy Practices of Smartphone Apps for Depression and Smoking Cessation

Cited by 227 publications

References 31 publications

Modernizing and designing evaluation frameworks for connected sensor technologies in medicine

Modernizing and designing evaluation frameworks for connected sensor technologies in medicine

Developments in Privacy and Data Ownership in Mobile Health Technologies, 2016-2019

Technology Matters: Mental health apps – separating the wheat from the chaff

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