How is Mental Health Data Being Commodified?

An overview of "Now for sale: Data on your mental health" by Drew Harwell from The Washington Post.

As our world continues to digitize, data commodification increases exponentially, especially in one sector: the health industry. The use of targeted ads and the selling of personal data by data brokers has become rampant, and mental health data is sold "legally" to large-scale companies. The data is offered in many forms, some in an “aggregate form” and some in “sample spreadsheets”, with one database selling lists with names and addresses of people suffering from numerous mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, “starting at $275 per 1,000 ‘ailment contacts’.” While HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) exists for medical professionals, not allowing them to share patient information, there is currently no law restricting the spread and sale of personal health data by companies or app makers.

In recent times with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some data brokers have “stopped selling location data that could be used to track who visited abortion clinics”. However, this has not slowed down the selling of other health data, with more apps dealing with wellness and mental health emerging due to the pandemic. This phenomenon spans many different aspects of the bridge between society and our still-developing world of technology, as ethics and morals are called into question. With companies sharing this data and selling it as a hot commodity, one must question the role of capitalism and class disparity in this situation. Data sharing breaches personal privacy and allows data brokers to “scrutinize people’s medical costs and pursue undocumented immigrants”. Again, there is currently no federal regulation of data brokering, and companies are still able to sell user data for relatively low costs. In the future, this thinning boundary line within the realm of personal privacy may begin to darken, but in the meantime, the selling of health data will prove to have dire consequences.

Cover image by Kasia Bojanowska on Dribbble.