The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed to ban online counseling service BetterHelp from sharing sensitive mental health data about its customers with ad networks and marketers.

A settlement between the FTC and BetterHelp also requires the company to pay $7.8 million in restitution to its users whose sensitive data was shared with third parties such as Facebook and Snapchat.

BetterHelp is a popular online counseling service offering therapy services to people in need of support, such as people with depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, addiction, and more.

The FTC alleges that BetterHelp followed poor practices in handling the data of people who visited its website or used its apps, including those who did not sign up for its counseling services.

The FTC says these practices, which the government agency calls “unlawful,” can pose serious risks to the well-being of vulnerable people in unstable states, threatening to worsen their condition.

“When someone with mental health issues seeks help, they do so in a moment of vulnerability and expecting professional counseling services to protect their privacy,” commented S. LevineDirector of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau.

“Instead, BetterHelp betrayed consumers’ most personal health information for profit.”

In an official complaint submitted by the FTC, the consumer protection organization claims that BetterHelp has, despite its promises to the contrary, shared email addresses, IP addresses and information that users filled out in a preliminary health questionnaire during the registration, with Facebook, Snapchat, CriteoAnd pinterest.

The FTC says third parties used this information for advertising purposes and, specifically, to identify consumers with similar profiles and promote BetterHelp’s counseling services.

The FTC further explains that the manner in which prompts to enter sensitive information were presented to users left them with no choice but to disclose that data to sign up for consulting services.

They further alleged that BetterHelp failed to obtain consent from the subjects to use their data for advertising purposes. Additionally, it has taken no precautions to limit how third-party recipients can use shared health information or with what other entities they are permitted to share it.

“The $7.8 million BetterHelp is required to pay under the proposed order will be used to provide partial refunds to consumers who registered and paid for BetterHelp’s services between August 1, 2017 and December 31, 2020. ” -FTC

In addition to this, if the order is approved, BetterHelp will also be obligated to:

• Obtain user consent before sharing their data with third parties for any purpose.
• Introduce strong safeguards to protect consumer health data.
• Demand and ensure that third parties who have received BetterHealth user data in the past have now deleted it.
• Limit how long the service can retain sensitive health information.

BetterHelp responded to the FTC’s proposal and allegations with an official statement on its site, saying that the advertising strategy it followed between 2017 and 2022 did not deviate from standard industry practices used by all main health care providers and health systems in the country.

“We do not and have never shared with advertisers, publishers, social media platforms or any other similar third parties, private information such as member names or clinical data from therapy sessions”, says BetterHelp.

“Furthermore, we do not and have never received any payment from any third party for any type of information about any of our members.”

The consulting service provider said it reached an agreement with the FTC to pay $7.8 million, but admitted no wrongdoing.