PTSD Coach

PTSD Coach is a free self-help app created by the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD. It is designed to help military service members and veterans mainly, and others secondarily, manage symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder such as anger, sleep problems, suicidal thoughts, and help with relaxation and self-talk. The US Department of Veterans Affairs also offers a handful of other self-help and treatment companion apps designed to help people manage PTSD. All these apps use the same privacy policy which clearly states "no data that could be used to identify you is sent to VA or third parties." This is good. And lawmakers have questioned the VA on their app privacy review practices to make sure they are strict and protect their users, which is also good. From what we can tell, this app seems to do a good job protecting users' privacy.

Was könnte passieren, wenn etwas schiefgeht?

First reviewed April 20, 2022. Review updated, April 25, 2023

Last year we found PTSD Coach to be a privacy-respecting mental health app and put it on our Best Of list. Nothing has changed since our 2022 review. PTSD Coach is still great.

Read our 2022 review:

This app doesn't collect personal information, and so it can't share any personal information. Yay! The US Department of Veteran Affairs has -- and follows -- strict privacy rules, which the app seems to adhere to. Again, yay! And the apps privacy policy makes clear what anonymous usage data is collected, what it is used for, and how to turn off the sharing of that data. A third yay! If we had to find one concern with this app, it's that it hasn't been updated in the Google Play store since July, 2020. Nearly two years without an update doesn't mean anything is wrong. It does show that no security updates have been done (hopefully because they haven't been needed) in a while. This is probably nothing major. We're just noting this as it's good when apps are updated when needed.

What's the worst that could happen? Well, hopefully nothing at all. If you want to make sure no one knows you are using this app, it's always good to passcode protect your phone and not use the app around anyone you wouldn't want to see you using it. Overall, this is one of the best privacy protecting apps we reviewed and that is a very good thing for an app targeted at service members who need help managing PTSD. First reviewed April 20, 2022. Review updated, April 25, 2023.

Tipps zu Ihrem Schutz

  • If you would like to turn off sending this anonymous usage information, go to the Settings menu, look for "Anonymous Usage Data," and flip the switch to the "off" setting.
  • mobile

Kann es mich ausspionieren? Information

Kamera

Gerät: Nicht verfügbar

App: Ja

Mikrofon

Gerät: Nicht verfügbar

App: Ja

Verfolgt den Standort

Gerät: Nicht verfügbar

App: Nein

Was kann zur Registrierung verwendet werden?

Welche Daten sammelt das Unternehmen?

Wie nutzt das Unternehmen die Daten?

"When you use a VA mobile app, no data that could be used to identify you is sent to VA or third parties. Any information that you enter into the app, such as names, phone numbers, addresses, images, or music, cannot be accessed, stored, or shared by VA."

"VA mobile apps do collect anonymous information about how people use the app. It is only used to improve how well the app works. We can see what sections of the app people visit, for example."

Wie können Sie Ihre Daten kontrollieren?

"If you would like to turn off sending this anonymous usage information, go to the Settings menu, look for "Anonymous Usage Data," and flip the switch to the "off" setting."

Wie ist das Unternehmen in der Vergangenheit mit den Daten über seine Verbraucher umgegangen?

Durchschnittlich

No known privacy or security incidents discovered in the last 3 years.

Informationen zum Datenschutz bei Kindern

We did not find information about children privacy in their privacy policy.

Kann dieses Produkt offline genutzt werden?

Nicht zu bestimmen

Benutzerfreundliche Informationen zum Datenschutz?

Ja

Links zu Datenschutzinformationen

Erfüllt dieses Produkt unsere Mindestsicherheitsstandards? Information

Ja

Verschlüsselung

Ja

Sicheres Passwort

Ja

Sicherheits-Updates

Ja

Umgang mit Schwachstellen

Ja

Anyone who finds a bug can report it to https://bugcrowd.com/va-vdp

Datenschutzrichtlinie

Ja

It's a little hard to find, but it is there on the National Center for PTSD page run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs

Verwendet das Produkt KI? Information

Nein

*Datenschutz nicht inbegriffen

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