What happens to my data on therapy apps?

A: Read the privacy policy, not the marketing. What your therapist knows is protected by law; what the platform collects — signup answers, usage patterns, device identifiers — has historically been treated as business data. The defining case: in 2023 the FTC ordered BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million for sharing users' emails and intake-questionnaire answers with Facebook and Snapchat for ad targeting, after promising privacy.¹ California's CMIA now explicitly covers mental health app data,² but enforcement trails fine print.

Worked example: an intake quiz question — "Are you experiencing anxiety?" — answered before you ever meet a therapist may not be a clinical record at all. It's a form field owned by a company.

Do this: before signing up anywhere, search the privacy policy for "advertising" and "third parties." (Ours is short and public: no ads, no data sold, aggregate measurement only, disclosed in full at the pledge →.)

Source: 1. FTC v. BetterHelp (2023) — ftc.gov. 2. AB 254 (2023), CMIA expansion.