MindDoc

Here's a scary line to read in any privacy policy, "Facebook may associate your use of our app and related activities with your Facebook user account." Uhm, YIKES!!! What does that mean? Well, it seems to indicate Facebook could know if you use the MindDoc app, when you use the app, how often you use the app, and perhaps other details about your use of the app. So, Facebook could know you're a woman, 28 years old, who uses an app to help manage anxiety, and likes lots of posts about cats and wine. Based on that. Facebook could then serve you lots of targeted ads about being single, your biological clock ticking, and make you even more anxious about life. You absolutely do not need that.

Here's another vague line in MindDoc's privacy policy that worries us, "We generally do not share your data with third parties unless we are legally entitled or obligated to do so, or you have given us consent to do so." Uhm, what do they mean by "generally"? That word seems to give them wiggle room to share your data with third parties in instances not covered by their privacy policy. Which, again, YIKES!!! Vague statements in privacy policies are not your friend. Especially with apps that collect so much personal information about you like your name, email, phone number, questions about your mental state, living conditions, and more. Seems Consumers Reports also had problems with MIndDoc's vague privacy policies on data sharing with third parties back in 2021. We're worried your data could get shared with third parties you're not aware of or don't consent to and then it could be used for who knows what. You don't want that. We don't want that.

One more thing about MindDoc that leaves us worried. They say you can delete your data directly in the app at any time by going to "Settings → Data & Security." However, when we downloaded and used the app and then wanted to delete our data, we could not find this option. Which means MindDoc still has your friendly privacy researcher's data when we'd really rather they didn't. Because suddenly we're seeing ads about mental health everywhere and it's got us a little freaked out (granted, we've been researching mental health apps, so mental health ads following us everywhere seems inevitable, unfortunately).