Mobile health and privacy: cross sectional study

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Mobile Health (mHealth) Applications
• Data Privacy and Security

Background:

• Health-related mobile applications (mHealth apps) are increasingly used for health management.
• Concerns exist regarding the user data collected by these apps and their privacy practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate user data collection by mHealth apps on Google Play.
• To characterize the privacy conduct of mHealth apps and assess associated privacy risks.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study analyzed mHealth apps available on the Google Play store in Australia.
• In-depth analysis focused on free medical and health/fitness apps, comparing them to non-mHealth apps.
• Outcomes included app code data collection, traffic data transmission, third-party involvement, privacy policy compliance, and user review analysis.

Main Results:

• 88% of mHealth apps had code potentially collecting user data; 3.9% transmitted this data.
• Most data collection and transmission involved third parties, with the top 50 third parties responsible for the majority.
• 23% of data transmissions used insecure protocols; 28.1% of apps lacked privacy policies, and only 47% of transmissions complied with policies.
• 1.3% of user reviews expressed privacy concerns.

Conclusions:

• Significant privacy issues and inconsistent practices were identified in mHealth apps.
• Clinicians should inform patients about these privacy risks when recommending mHealth apps.