FTC Proposes $7.8 Million Settlement For Online Counseling Services Who Sold Patient Data

Just an FYI: Hope you didn't use these online companies for online counseling services.

If you used any of these online counseling services, your private data may have been sold to social media and advertising companies. They uploaded nearly 2 million patient email addresses to Facebook to target the patients friends with ads for mental health services. They appear to also have exposed 1.5 million patients questionnaire answers. They also disclosed 5.6 million former clients to Shapchat.

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"[BetterHealth] promised to keep [sensitive health information] private through statements like: 'Rest assured – any information provided in this questionnaire will stay private between you and your counselor.'"

"But from the FTC’s perspective, a truthful statement would have been 'Rest assured – we plan to share your information with major advertising platforms, including Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest.'"

BetterHelp, an online counseling service, also does business as My Therapist, Teen Counseling, Faithful Counseling, Pride Counseling, Terappeuta for Spanish-speaking clients, and others, the FTC indicates in its pending settlement updated March 2.

People who signed up and paid for BetterHelp services between August 1, 2017 and December 31, 2020 may receive partial refunds thanks to the proposed settlement.

BetterHelp's home page, which boasts it is "256-bit SSL secure," claims 3,822,804 people have received "help" from their more than 31,366 licensed therapists. The popular platform, which claims to be the "world's largest therapy service," regularly runs television and online ads for its service.