PTSD Coach

PTSD Coach

Review date: April 25, 2022

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Mozilla says

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People voted: A little creepy

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.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

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.

Tips to protect yourself

  • 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

Can it snoop on me? information

Camera

Device: N/A

App: Yes

Microphone

Device: N/A

App: Yes

Tracks location

Device: N/A

App: No

What can be used to sign up?

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

"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."

How can you control your data?

"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."

What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?

Average

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

Child Privacy Information

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

Can this product be used offline?

Can’t Determine

User-friendly privacy information?

Yes

Links to privacy information

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards? information

Yes

Encryption

Yes

Strong password

Yes

Security updates

Yes

Manages vulnerabilities

Yes

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

Privacy policy

Yes

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

Does the product use AI? information

No

*Privacy Not Included

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