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‘They thought they were doing good but it made people worse’: why mental health apps are under scrutiny
As experts worry over privacy issues, ineffectiveness and even harm, the UK is looking at whether the plethora of digital mental health tools need regulating
Independent watchdogs such as the Mozilla Foundation, a global nonprofit that attempts to police the internet for bad actors, have identified platforms exploiting opaque regulatory grey areas to either share or sell sensitive personal information. Like many others who have researched this rapidly growing industry – the digital mental health apps market has been predicted to be worth$17.5bn (£13.8bn) by 2030 – Caltrider feels that tighter regulation and oversight of these many platforms, aimed at a particularly vulnerable segment of the population, is long overdue. But at the same time, experts still firmly believe that if regulated appropriately, mental health apps can play an enormous role in terms of improving access to care, collecting useful data that can aid in reaching an accurate diagnosis, and filling gaps left by overstretched healthcare systems.
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