It is estimated that 1.5 billion smartphone users have a health app installed and this number is set to treble in the next three years.
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“Testing was used to characterise app features, explore data collection and transmission behaviour, and identify adherence to data protection principles concerning information security”, the study said. The apps tend to cover health subjects such as weight loss, becoming more active, stopping smoking and cutting back on alcohol.
The apps were assessed over a six-month period by inputting simulated information, tracking the handling of this information and looking at how this agreed with any associated privacy policies.
While more than half of the apps had a privacy policy, this was often vaguely worded and did not let people know what types of data were being shared.
If you are using a health app, be cautious as some health apps may be sending unencrypted personal and health information to other online services, putting users at risk.
Although the NHS reviews the apps on its library to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act, and “to ensure they are clinically safe”, on examination 70 of 79 tested apps did transmit data over the internet, with 38 of those not providing any information about what data would be sent.
Four of the apps were also sending information about health and lifestyle – such as bodyweight – without encryption, leaving it vulnerable to hackers.
The apps that leaked the most data have now been removed from the library.
Lead researcher Kit Huckvale said: “It is known that apps available through general marketplaces had poor and variable privacy practices, for example, failing to disclose personal data collected and sent to a third party”.
“The study is a signal and an opportunity to address this because the NHS would like to see strategic investment in apps to support people in the future”, Huckvale told the BBC.
The research, published in the journal BMC Medicine, said their findings questioned the “trustworthiness” of NHS accreditation. In an accompanying commentary, Paul Wicks and Emil Chiauzzi from PatientsLikeMe – a USA health information sharing website – write about health apps: “The potential for benefit remains vast and the degree of innovation is inspiring – but it turns out we are much earlier in the maturation phase of medical apps than many of us would have liked to believe”.
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In a statement, NHS England told the BBC that a new, more thorough NHS endorsement model for apps had begun piloting this month.
