Centre for Internet & Society

This report analyses the privacy policies of mental health apps in India and provides recommendations for making the policies not only legally compliant but also user-centric

The report’s findings indicate a significant gap in the structure and content of privacy policies in Indian mental health apps. This highlights the need to develop a framework that can guide organisations in developing their privacy policies. Therefore, this report proposes a holistic framework to guide the development of privacy policies for mental health apps in India. It focuses on three key segments that are an essential part of the privacy policy of any mental health app. First, it must include factors considered essential by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDPA) such as consent mechanisms, rights of the data principal, provision to withdraw consent etc. Second, the privacy policy must state how the data provided by them to these apps will be used. Finally, developers must include key elements, such as provisions for third-party integrations and data retention policies.”


Click to download the full research paper here

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