Mitch Wagner of InformationWeek reports on a new social networking site:
Mental Health Social launched a new social network designed to let people with mental health conditions or those interested in those conditions to connect in a comfortable online environment.
MentalHealthSocial.com is designed to allow people to share experiences anonymously, reach out to others with similar problems, and connect caregivers assisting loved ones facing mental health problems, the Naples, Fla., company said.
You can read more of his news story on InformationWeek, but before signing up for the new site, I’d strongly encourage you to read the site’s privacy policy, as I think there’s reason to be concerned about how much information they collect and store about you. I also note that their policy does not indicate whether the user can get their account completely deleted upon request and does not indicate for how long (eternity?) they will store your information. While the ability to correct inaccuracies is important, that’s not enough user control.
Then, too, as someone who is somewhat savvy about data breaches, I found this assurance inadequate:
With respect to security: We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.
What do they consider “appropriate?” And do they encrypt all transactions if you order something from them? How much credit card information are they storing?
I do not have time to investigate all stories that raise privacy or security concerns, but I hope that Patient Privacy Rights or some other patient-oriented service will contact the site to obtain more information and clarification on the privacy and security issue and will work with them to have a clearer or stronger privacy policy.
While having a resource to share information and experiences can be a wonderful thing for patients, let us not forget the risks, including the risk that whatever you share — even if you use a pseudonym — may wind up exposed and archived on the Internet forever or may subject you to an increased risk of ID theft or loss.