Google Inc., Facebook Inc., and other third-party companies received user data from popular apps intended to help users with depression and smoking, according to a study released April 19.
The researchers, writing for the open access wing of the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked into the privacy policies of 36 top-ranked depression and smoking cessation apps to see how the user’s data was shared with third parties.
The authors detected data transmitted to a third party other than the patient or doctor in 33 apps (92 percent), and 29 apps (81 percent) sent advertising and marketing analytics just ...