When you think about therapy apps on your Android device, you may not be thinking about the possibility of a data leak that could impact your personal life and expose your private therapy records. That would be a reasonable assumption. After all, therapy apps are built on the idea of having private conversations with a specialist about issues you want or need to work through.
It’s all very personal in nature, and you generally don’t want this kind of information being out there for the world to see. Unfortunately, some therapy apps on Android may not be as safe and secure as users think. A new report from Security researchers Oversecured claims that several top therapy apps and AI therapy apps have a data leak problem. This is certainly concerning, but it potentially gets worse, as Overscured also states that information from the data leak could end up being sold on the dark web.
Top therapy apps with data leak issues could impact tens of millions of users
According to Oversecured’s report, the top apps that have these data leak issues could impact millions of users. The report states that the combined downloads of these apps are in the tens of millions. What’s more is that these apps have “facilitated hundreds of millions of conversations about anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction,” Oversecured says.
The data leak appears to be the result of a series of what Oversecured calls “Intent Vulnerabilities,” which are impacting a number of these apps on the Play Store. Specifically, Oversecured says that over a quarter of the apps it scanned had these vulnerabilities.
As for which apps these are, Oversecured isn’t divulging those details just yet. The security researcher states that it’s “in responsible disclosure mode” at the moment. What that means is that it has notified the apps of these vulnerabilities, but the vulnerabilities haven’t been patched by the app developers yet. So it has limited the amount of technical information it’s sharing for the time being. We’ve reached out to Oversecured and will add more relevant details if and when they become available.
The problem seems wide-reaching
What Oversecured does share about the apps is that one of them is among the most engaging AI therapy solutions, and it has millions of users. It also mentions apps that have FDA Breakthrough Device designations for treating depression, as well as apps in Europe that are deployed in state healthcare programs. It doesn’t stop there, either.
Oversecured goes on to say that the impacted apps include solutions that are backed by major venture funding from prominent technology investors, products with multiple randomized control trials, and apps that are used by major employers, insurers, and government health agencies.
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