
Warning: *privacy not included with this product
Better Stop Suicide
Suicide kills over 700,000 people around the world every year and that number is likely conservative. Research has shown people are more likely to turn to tech-driven help than in-person help for suicidal thoughts, which can make suicide prevention apps a good option for intervention and treatment.
Better Stop Suicide is one of many suicide prevention apps available. The app is free and offers users access to helpful techniques such as feel-better tasks, emotional needs checks, and the ability to record your own life-saving message. The same company that makes this free suicide prevention app also makes a subscription based mental health app. Both apps have the same privacy policy, which we found pretty vague in detailing how much data is collected and how exactly all that data is used. Just last year, another suicide prevention support line got in hot water when it was reported they were sharing users' anonymized data to their for-profit company for marketing purposes. All in all, if this app will help you with suicidal thoughts, that probably outweighs our privacy concerns. However, we really would love to see an app focused on such vulnerable people commit to doing better, or at least being less vague, about protecting their users' privacy.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
Holy vague and messy privacy policy Batman! Better Stop Suicide's privacy policy is bad. Like, get a failing grade from your high school English teacher bad. Take the second sentence in the privacy policy, "Contact us at if you have any questions or problems regarding the use of your Personal Data and we will gladly assist you." Yeah, they just plain old omitted the way to contact them. We did find a contact email at the very bottom of their privacy policy and emailed them multiple times with questions about the app's privacy and security and received no response. So, that "gladly assist you" part seems like it might be a tad overstated.
Then there is the overall vagueness of the policy, which says it was last updated in 2018. They make statements like, "Data we gather | Information you have provided us with | This might be your email address, name, billing address, home address etc - mainly information that is necessary for delivering you a product/service or to enhance your customer experience with us." That's a lot of "might", "etc", and "mainly" vagueness in one statement. But hey, it's good to know the data they gather is the information you provide them. That's helpful.
What can we deduce from their extremely vague and poorly written privacy policy? (What can we say? We like things like punctuation and clarity here at *Privacy Not Included.) Well, it does seem like Better Stop Suicide gathers a fair amount of personal information -- including name, email. home address, and IP address. They also say they gather information from "trusted partners" but we have no idea who those "trusted partners" might be as they say they link to them but then provide no link. They also say they can gather information about your from public sources.
So, what might Better Stop Suicide do with all this personal information they gather? That is pretty vague too. At one point in their privacy policy they say, "We might process your Personal Data for additional purposes that are not mentioned here, but are compatible with the original purpose for which the data was gathered." That's a pretty broad statement for how they plan to use your data that could go beyond what they do mention like providing services, communications, and potentially ads.
Their privacy policy also states, "We reserve the right to anonymise Personal Data gathered and to use any such data. We will use data outside the scope of this Policy only when it is anonymised." Which is a little concerning because it's been shown to be pretty easy to de-anonymize user data. But hey, Better Stop Suicide does state in their privacy policy, "We do not share your Personal Data with strangers." So, there's that.
Finally, we were unable to confirm if Better Stop Suicide meets our Minimum Security Standards. So all in all, we have a whole bunch of questions about this suicide prevention app. What's the worst that could happen? Well, we're not even sure we can tell from this vague privacy policy. It seems like the company could share your data with just about anyone if they wanted, as long as they aren't a stranger we suppose. People who are dealing with suicidal thoughts need all the help we as a society can give them. This app could possibly help. But holy cow, with such an awful mess of a privacy policy, we'd encourage you to find a better app.
Tips to protect yourself
- Ensure you have a strong password.
- Do not give consent for disclosure of your Personal Data to third parties
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: N/A
App: No
Microphone
Device: N/A
App: Yes
Tracks location
Device: N/A
App: No
What can be used to sign up?
No
Phone
No
Third-party account
No
No sign-up required
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Email address, name, billing address, home address
Body related
Social
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known privacy or security incidents discovered in the last 3 years.
Child Privacy Information
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
It's a hot mess, but they do have a privacy policy.
Dive Deeper
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10 Things Parents Can Do to Prevent SuicideAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
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Preventing Youth Suicide: Tips for Parents & EducatorsNational Association of School Psychologists
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Challenges with mHealth Apps for Depression and Suicide PreventionPsychiatric Times
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Are Apple users more prone to mental health issues than Android users?Peter Grange on Linkedin
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How to Create a Mental Health App to Track Anxiety and Depressionaimprosoft
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Saving Life and Keeping Privacy: A Study on Mobile Apps for Suicide Prevention and Privacy PoliciesSpringerLink
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User Engagement and Usability of Suicide Prevention Apps: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content AnalysisJMIR Publications
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