Mental health apps have better privacy protections than most other types of apps, according to a new analysis from Mozilla. Prayer apps also had poor privacy standards, the team found.

The Mozilla *privacy not included guide lead.’they track, share, and capitalize on users’ most intimate thoughts and feelings, like moods, mental state, and biometric data’.

Of those apps, 29 were given a’privacy not included’ warning label. Most apps had poor security practices, letting users create accounts with weak passwords.

Mozilla says the apps with the worst practices are better help, youper, woebot, better stop suicide, pray.com, and Talkspace. Therapy provider Talkspace collects user chat transcripts.

The Mozilla team said it reached out to the companies behind these apps to ask about their policies multiple times. Only three responded to the Mozilla response.

The problem got worse during the covid-19 pandemic when more and more people started to need care. Mental health apps sought to fill that void by making resources more accessible and readily available. But that access could come with a privacy tradeoff, the report shows.