MedCity News
Report: Addiction treatment apps pose privacy risks
Most apps offering opioid use disorder treatment have access to sensitive identifying information of their users, according to an analysis of 10 of them.
Shares0
This article has been updated with a statement from Bicycle Health.
Several past reports have raised privacy concerns in mobile health apps, especially in data being shared with third-party advertisers and analytics providers. Even in apps offering treatment for opioid use disorder, which should carry additional privacy protections, the same problems remain.
An analysis of 10 addiction treatment and recovery apps found that almost all of them were accessing sensitive user data and sharing it with third parties. The report was conducted by ExpressVPN’s Digital Security Lab, with the Opioid Policy Institute and the Defensive Lab Agency.