BetterHelp to Refund $7.8M for 'Deceiving' Customers, Selling Mental Health Data on Social Media, FTC Says.

In a first-of-its-kind proposed action, the commission also issued an order banning the online counseling service from sharing consumers mental health data.

Online mental health provider BetterHelp Inc. will refund $7.8 million to its customers for "deceiving" them and sharing their medical data for targeting ads used by Facebook, Snapchat and other social media, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.

The FTC says the proposed action – which cleared the commission on a 4-0 vote -- is its first to return money to consumers whose health data was compromised and includes a proposed order banning BetterHelp from sharing consumers health data, "including sensitive information about mental health challenges."

The agreement will be published in the Federal Registry for 30 days for public comment, after which the commission will decide whether to make the order final.

"When a person struggling with mental health issues reaches out for help, they do so in a moment of vulnerability and with an expectation that professional counseling services will protect their privacy," Samuel Levine, director of FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, says in a media release.

"Instead, BetterHelp betrayed consumers most personal health information for profit. Let this proposed order be a stout reminder that the FTC will prioritize defending Americans sensitive data from illegal exploitation," Levine says.

Mountain View, California-based BetterHelp did not respond Thursday to HealthLeaders' request for comment.  

The company markets mental health services geared toward specific groups, such as Faithful Counseling for Christians, Teen Counseling, and Pride Counseling for LGBTQ people.

Prospective customers are required to fill out a questionnaire asking for sensitive mental health information—such as whether they have experienced depression or suicidal thoughts and are on any medications. The applicants also provide their name, email address, birth date and other personal information, after which they are matched with a counselor and pay between $60 and $90 per week for counseling, the FTC says.

Consumer Protection inspectors at FTC note that, at several points in the signup process, BetterHelp promises consumers that it will not use or disclose their personal health data except for limited purposes, such as to provide counseling services.

"Despite these promises, BetterHelp used and revealed consumers email addresses, IP addresses, and health questionnaire information to Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest for advertising purposes," according to the FTCs complaint. 

For example, the FTC complaint says BetterHelp "used consumers email addresses and the fact that they had previously been in therapy to instruct Facebook to identify similar consumers and target them with advertisements for BetterHelps counseling service, which helped the company bring in tens of thousands of new paying users and millions of dollars in revenue."

In addition to the refund, the FTCs proposed order will ban BetterHelp from sharing consumers personal information with certain third parties for re-targeting consumers who previously had visited BetterHelps website or used its app, including those who had not signed up for the companys counseling service.

According to the complaint, BetterHelp pressed customers for sensitive health data by repeatedly showing them privacy misrepresentations and nudging them with unavoidable prompts to sign up for its services.

"Despite collecting such sensitive information, BetterHelp failed to maintain sufficient policies or procedures to protect it and did not obtain consumers affirmative express consent before disclosing their health data," the complaint states, adding that "BetterHelp also failed to place any limits on how third parties could use consumers health information—allowing Facebook and other third parties to use that information for their own internal purposes, including for research and development or to improve advertising."

The counseling service further lied to users and the public in 2020 when it denied media reports that it shared consumers' health information with third parties, the complaint says.