Data Privacy and Security Analysis for Mental Health Chatbot Applications

Due to the rapid advancement of technology, people nowadays consider chatbot-based mobile applications as a vital resource to get various mental and emotional support. Because of their growing uses, it is required to assess the available mental health (MH) chatbots with respect to privacy and security. However, these apps are not without their risk and pose various user-related privacy concerns that should not be ignored. In this study, we analyze 10 notable apps collected from the Google Play Store, examining their functionalities, data safety policies and required permissions to assess whether user data privacy is adequately protected. We also perform some security tests and found several vulnerabilities and discrepancies. Our findings include the possibility of highly sensitive user data leakage and weak security practices. Finally, we provide some potential recommendations to enhance the privacy and security of the user data.