Mental Health in the Digital Age: BetterHelp's Ethical Breach and What It Means for Us

It took me some time to gather myself and my thoughts to write this piece. I wanted to bring visibility to this issue given the lack of media attention and my new history with this well-known platform, BetterHelp.

Upon my transition to a new job, I felt the urge to return to therapy, seeking resources for this change. Given the accessibility of this platform through my work’s Employee Assistance Program, and the access to free sessions through work, I was elated for an opportunity to talk through some challenges and receive a new perspective from a mental health professional. I built rapport and trust with my clinician and arrived at a crossroads, the possibility to delve deeper. Simultaneously, I learned about BetterHelp’s controversy.

Unbeknownst to many of us, this large mental health telehealth site and app was selling their user data to social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest (Federal Trade Commission, 2023). This revelation was a betrayal of trust. We rely on these services to maintain the confidentiality of our most intimate thoughts and struggles, not to exploit them for profit. The clinicians, whose primary responsibility should be to their clients, are now entangled in a web where their clients' pathologies can become a source of revenue.

This practice stands in stark contrast to the ethical codes set forth by the American Counseling Association (ACA). The ACA's Code of Ethics (2014) emphasizes the importance of confidentiality and the boundaries that should exist between a clinician and client. Selling user data is a blatant violation of these principles, eroding the foundational trust necessary for effective therapy.

The implications of BetterHelp's actions are profound. It not only undermines individual therapy sessions but also tarnishes the broader field of mental health services. It discourages people from seeking help, fearing that their personal information might be misused.

I urge readers to reconsider their choices when seeking mental health services. Private practice therapists, though potentially more costly and less convenient, may provide a level of confidentiality and ethical integrity that corporate telehealth services like BetterHelp currently fail to uphold.

In this new era, where digital convenience often trumps personal interaction, we must be vigilant about the ethical practices of the platforms we use. Mental health should be treated with the utmost respect and care, not as a commodity for exploitation.

By choosing therapists who prioritize ethical standards and confidentiality, we can protect ourselves and send a clear message to companies like BetterHelp: our mental health is not for sale.

References

American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. American Counseling Association. https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Federal Trade Commission. (2023, March). FTC says online counseling service BetterHelp pushed people into handing over health information – and broke its privacy promises. Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/03/ftc-says-online-counseling-service-betterhelp-pushed-people-handing-over-health-information-broke. ​​