Dive Brief:
- A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that 41 apps out of 211 available for managing diabetes in Google Play had privacy policies. Only four asked users for permission to share data.
- More than half the apps with privacy policies stated they would collect data during use or registration. Only six of these apps explicitly stated they would not collect children's personal data; 16 said user data might be used for advertising purposes.
- The study focused only on Android apps and was limited to privacy policies available prior to downloads that are not available within the apps.
Dive Insight:
Despite the study's somewhat limited app focus, George Annas, director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health said the results most likely apply to a range of apps for different disease types.
"App developers avoid privacy policies because they want to be able to share health information with advertisers without the knowledge of the users," Sarah Blenner, lead study author, and a public health researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters.
"Only 19% of the apps in our study had a privacy policy available pre-download," Blenner added.
Apps are not currently required to have clear privacy policies, and companies offering the apps often hired a third party to develop them and may not know what they do with personal data, Scott Kambler of KamberLaw LLC told Reuters.