Woebot

Woebot

Data recenzji: 10 maja 2022

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Według Mozilli:

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Według użytkowników: Nieprzerażające

Welcome to the brave new world of mental health AI chatbots. Woebot, started in 2017 by psychologists and AI-researchers from Stanford, describes itself as "a choose-your-own-adventure self-help book that is capable of storing all of your entries, and gets more specific to your needs over time." Welp, the future is here, for better or worse. What exactly does therapy by emotional AI algorithm look like? Users download Woebot and the chatbot starts asking questions. Things like "How are you feeling?" and "What's going on in your world right now?" Woebot then uses "natural language processing, psychological expertise, excellent writing, and sense of humor to create the experience of a friendly informative conversation."

Based on reviews we saw in the app stores, some people feel more comfortable talking to a bot than a real person. And others found long wait times or high costs kept them from talking to a real person, so this free chatbot was what they turned to instead. At least one study has shown AI chatbots can be successful in reducing anxiety and depression. And investors dropped around $100 million in the company recently, so it seems AI chatbots are here to stay. What does the privacy of Woebot look like? Well, when we first reviewed Woebot we had some concerns. However, after we published our review, Woebot updated their privacy policy and made some changes to better clarify how they protect their users' privacy. We still have some concerns, but with their updated privacy policy, not as many as before.

Co się może stać, jeśli coś pójdzie nie tak?

How good are AI chatbots -- like Woebot--that you share all sorts of personal and emotional information with at protecting privacy? That's a very good question. One of the biggest risks with AI chatbots is keeping the information you share with them during your conversations secure. That means making sure no one else can read the contents of the conversations you have with the bot. But AI algorithms need to learn to get better at chatting with you. So when Woebot (or any AI chatbot) says they are "keeping previous chats in mind to provide the most beneficial and timely therapeutic suggestions," what does that mean? According to Woebot, that means they review de-identified portions of conversations and compare the AI-suggested path to the path chosen by the user to retrain their algorithms. Here's hoping those de-identified conversations are truly de-identified.

We do know Woebot says all your communications are encrypted both in transit and at rest, which is good. Something we, and other experts, always worry about is racial, gender, and cultural bias making their way into AI algorithms. This would not be good for a therapy app. Does Woebot have a bias issue in their algorithm? We sure hope not. But we also can't tell. This isn't unique to Woebot though. We generally can't determine if there is bias in any proprietary AI algorithm. It's also good to remember that while your personal chats with a human therapist are covered by strict health privacy laws like HIPAA, your personal chats with an AI chatbot aren't always similarly protected. Woebot does say that they "treat all user data as Protected Health Information and adhere to all HIPAA and GDPR requirements."

How does Woebot's privacy policies look to us? We have a few concerns. Woebot says they can collect personal info like name, email, IP address, "inferences drawn from other personal information to create a profile about a consumer," and the information you give them in your conversations. They also say they can "obtain information about you from other sources, including through third party services and organizations to supplement information provided by you." So, Woebot can collect a good deal of personal information, add to the information you give them with even more information gathered from third parties. Then they say they can share some of this information with third parties, including insurance companies and a seemingly broad category they call "external advisors." They also say in their privacy policy they share some of your information, such as identifiers and network internet activity, with marketing partners for advertising purposes. We were a little confused by this because they also state in their privacy policy, "We never, ever sell or share your data with advertisers." Those two statements seem in conflict to us.

Finally, Woebot says they aggregate or de-identified your personal information, including location and device information, and share it with third parties. This is a pretty common practice but we also must remind you that it has been found to be pretty easy to de-anonymize such data, especially if location data is included.

What's the the worst that could happen with Woebot? Hopefully nothing. But, what if the previous chats they keep in mind to provide you more beneficial therapeutic suggestions end up not being completely de-identified because you mentioned your dog HuskerDoodle in them and no one else has a dog named HuskerDoodle and that chat conversation gets leaked and the world knows all about your relationship with HuskerDoodle? OK, so this isn't likely to happen. Still, it's a good reminder that anything you share on the internet isn't 100% secure, that chats that are de-identified could, potentially, be re-identified under some circumstances, and Woebot is a for-profit company as well as your helpful mental health friend. Their own privacy policy states, "Unfortunately, no system is 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any personal data you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure." That's a good reminder to be careful out there folks.

Wskazówki, jak się chronić

  • Don't connect your app to any social networks like Facebook.
  • Don't allow the app access your location.
  • mobile

Czy może mnie podsłuchiwać? informacje

Aparat

Urządzenie: Nie dotyczy

Aplikacja: Nie

Mikrofon

Urządzenie: Nie dotyczy

Aplikacja: Nie

Śledzi położenie

Urządzenie: Nie dotyczy

Aplikacja: Nie

Czego można użyć do rejestracji?

Jakie dane zbiera ta firma?

Jak ta firma wykorzystuje te dane?

Woebot does not sell users' data. Their privacy policies says they can share identifiers and internet network activity with marketing partners for advertising purposes.

Woebot's privacy policy states, "Advertising- or Targeting-Related. We may use first party or third-party Technologies to deliver Woebot relevant content, including ads relevant to your interests, on our Services or on third-party websites."

Woebot may share personal data with third parties. These third parties include service providers, program partners, administrative authorities (tax or social security authorities), financial institutions, insurance companies, police, public prosecutors, regulators, external advisors.

Woebot says they may obtain additional personal information about your from third parties and other sources, including social networking sites. One purpose for obtaining that personal information is to enhance their ability to provide you with information about their business and products.

Woebot says, "Most of the personal data we process is obtained from you when, through the application you register for a Woebot account and exchange messages with Woebot. Other types of personal data may be obtained from third parties (such as Google Analytics) to enrich and continuously improve the user experience."

Jak możesz kontrolować swoje dane?

After we published our review of Woebot on April 20, 2022, Woebot updated their privacy policy on April 28, 2022 to clarify the concerns we had about how users can control their data.

Woebot's privacy policy now states, "Your data is yours. Anyone who uses Woebot can access, correct, delete or restrict their own data. You can share as much or as little as you like, and you can opt out of emails, texts or push notifications."

Woebot also edited their privacy policy in their April 28, 2022 revision to clearly state, "Anyone who uses Woebot, regardless of where they live or are physically located, can access, correct, delete or restrict their own data. You may also have various rights under data protection legislation in your country (where applicable). That means if your country gives you even more rights, we will also uphold those rights, too."

We appreciate this update and because Woebot has now clarified clearly that all users have the same rights to access and delete data, we have removed our privacy ding from Woebot in this section.

Woebot says users can instantaneously delete their data and close their account by typing ”delete my data” to Woebot. They can also request to delete their data through email or mail. Users can request a copy of their data through the app, email or mail.

Jaka jest znana historia tej firmy w zakresie ochrony danych użytkowników?

Średnia

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

Informacje o prywatności dziecka

Woebot is not directed to children under 13 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children The app has a content rating of "Teen" in the Google Play store.

Czy ten produkt może być używany bez połączenia z siecią?

Nie

Przyjazne dla użytkownika informacje o prywatności?

Nie

Odnośniki do informacji o prywatności

Czy ten produkt spełnia nasze minimalne standardy bezpieczeństwa? informacje

Tak

Szyfrowanie

Tak

All data is encrypted both at rest with AES-256 or better and in transit with TLS 1.2 or better.

Silne hasło

Tak

Aktualizacje zabezpieczeń

Tak

Woebot has a scheduled monthly patching cycle.

Zajmuje się problemami z bezpieczeństwem

Tak

Woebot says they respond to emergency vulnerabilities. They test the security of design by performing and remediating findings of penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, internal compliance reviews and more. To report a security vulnerability, Woebot says users can message them directly in the app, email [email protected], or use their contact form.

Zasady ochrony prywatności

Tak

Czy produkt wykorzystuje sztuczną inteligencję? informacje

Tak

Woebot says they are "keeping previous chats in mind to provide the most beneficial and timely therapeutic suggestions."

According to Woebot, this means they periodically review de-identified portions of conversations and compare the AI-suggested path to the path chosen by the user. When these paths diverge, they retrain their algorithms using the additional de-identified data to help Woebot’s conversational ability improve and learn.

Czy tej sztucznej inteligencji nie można ufać?

Nie można ustalić

Jakie decyzje sztuczna inteligencja podejmuje o Tobie lub za Ciebie?

Therapeutic suggestions

Czy firma jest przejrzysta w kwestii działania sztucznej inteligencji?

Tak

Woebit follows the FDA design control documentation which requires explicit description of the product and its methods of delivery, including transparency of the AI algorithms and how they ensure safety for users.

Czy użytkownik ma kontrolę nad funkcjami sztucznej inteligencji?

Tak

Yes, the AI helps recommend conversation paths that might be most beneficial for the user, but the user is always given the choice of what path to follow.
*Prywatność do nabycia osobno

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