Former staff at therapy-by-text app Talkspace say the company provided burner phones to write fake app reviews and doesn't adequately respect client privacy
a sort of Uber-for-therapy app—finds....that the “needs of a VC-backed start-up to grow quickly can sometimes be in conflict w/the core values of professional therapy.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Hannah Bloch-Wehba / @hbwhbwhbw : has anyone written about the tech sector's irritating cooptation of the term “democracy” to mean, functionally, anything that is broadly distributed? https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Calli Schroeder / @iwillleavenow : Massive privacy violations, unethical employee treatment, lying about credentials and stats... It's bad. And @kashhill's writing and investigating is, as always, excellent here. https://twitter.com/... Reed Abelson / @reedabelson : “The app-ification of mental health care has real problems”: important reminder of concerns as use of tele-therapy soars https://twitter.com/... Kashmir Hill / @kashhill : And there was the time Talkspace said that Trump's election had resulted in a “7x spike in sales” because everyone was going into therapy. @Aaron_Krolik pulled the stats on Talkspace downloads. They actually declined after the election. Mary Branscombe / @marypcbuk : access to therapy is a wonderful thing but boy howdie does the content of your therapy need to stay between you and your therapist, not be fodder for app ML https://twitter.com/... Kashmir Hill / @kashhill : One of the former Talkspace employees still had his burner phone with the fake identity he was supposed to use to give the company's app 5 stars on the App store. https://twitter.com/... Kashmir Hill / @kashhill : Talkspace, a text therapy app made famous by Michael Phelps ads, keeps transcripts for about 7 to 10 years because they're medical records—and data-mines them, of course. But all the other stuff going on there was WILD. https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Talkspace's problems are not new so much as newly documented from the inside. Back in 2016, therapists on the platform told The Verge about blurred employee-contractor lines and a problematic anonymity policy; by early 2020, scrutiny had widened to the category when BetterHelp was found to be [[a:950841|pinging third parties whenever the app opened, including when a patient reported suicidal thoughts]].
The New York Times reporting built on that record with former-staff allegations: burner phones used to post fake five-star reviews, mined client data, retained transcripts, inflated credential claims, and a claimed post-election 7x sales spike that download analysis contradicts. It lands as virtual therapy demand is surging, making the gap between growth marketing and clinical ethics a category-wide question rather than one company's scandal.
First-order effects
Talkspace's user-acquisition playbook is directly implicated: fake reviews via burner phones and disputed download statistics undermine the growth metrics its VC backers rely on to justify valuation.
Clients and therapists on the platform face immediate unanswered questions about transcript retention and data mining, on top of the anonymity-policy concerns therapists raised in 2016.
Second-order effects
BetterHelp, already flagged in February 2020 for sharing app-opening and crisis-flag events with third parties, now shares a scrutinized category: every Talkspace revelation invites the same audit of rival therapy apps' claims and data practices.
App stores and advertisers become the pressure point — if review fraud is credible at scale in mental health, platforms hosting these apps face demands to verify reviews and health-app marketing claims they currently take at face value.
Third-order effects
The pattern points toward structural oversight of direct-to-consumer mental health apps: retention of therapy transcripts and third-party data flows sit outside traditional clinical confidentiality norms, and repeated exposés make regulatory or platform-level rules more likely.
If trust becomes the scarce resource in teletherapy, the companies that survive may be those whose clinical and privacy practices are auditable by default — flipping the current model where growth velocity substitutes for credibility.
The trend: VC-backed mental health apps are colliding with the trust requirements of clinical care, as growth tactics like review manipulation and data monetization draw escalating journalistic and regulatory scrutiny across the whole category.
Talkspace was started by a couple whose relationship was “saved” by marriage counseling. He was a marketing guy, she was a software developer who studied psychotherapy & is now head of clinical practices there. But my story caused a change to her LinkedIn. Didn't get that degree.…
@kashhill
Kashmir Hill on x
Given how sensitive therapy sessions are, I started looking into start-ups that do therapy via text & then keep the transcripts. But the investigation turned up so much more than I expected: https://www.nytimes.com/...
@kashhill
Kashmir Hill on x
A Talkspace employee who later sued the company had his therapy logs read aloud at an all-hands meeting “anonymously” but soon everyone knew it was him. Basically your workplace nightmare. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@phirephoenix
Jenny on x
This is by no means unique to TalkSpace, but as is often the case the crux is who can afford to pay for privacy. I've been warning friends against therapy apps for years, but they are undeniably more affordable and accessible. And if you need the help, what are you gonna do? http…
@melissamcewen
Melissa McEwen on x
> Talkspace also has been analyzing transcripts in order to develop bots that monitor and augment therapists' work. 😱 https://twitter.com/...
@cafween
Cathleen McAllister on x
see like this is why, as hard as it is to find a fking traditional therapist with US insurance, i'm terrified of all of these apps https://twitter.com/...
@rob_t_firefly
@rob_t_firefly on x
Holy heck. Having a story like this come up on my feed at the VERY MOMENT I'm starting to write a cover letter for the company in question is a brand-new experience. Backing off of that one, kthx. 🤨 https://twitter.com/...
@byrnehobart
Byrne Hobart on x
https://www.nytimes.com/... Has YC funded anyone doing “compliance-in-a-box,” where they help you ensure that your minimum viable product doesn't have internal privacy flaws that you won't get around to fixing until your first negative media story?
@galvinalmanza
Emily Galvin-Almanza on x
Maximum yikes https://twitter.com/...
@celineorelse
Mwoun on x
Holy fuck this THREAD https://twitter.com/...
@jilliancyork
Jillian C. York on x
Well well. Several months ago I tweeted (and later deleted) about a horrible privacy violation I experienced with TalkSpace, and their GC sent me a pretty creepy message. Guess the chickens have come home to roost. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@aaschapiro
Avi Asher-Schapiro on x
This investigation into Talkspace—a sort of Uber-for-therapy app—finds....that the “needs of a VC-backed start-up to grow quickly can sometimes be in conflict w/the core values of professional therapy.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@hbwhbwhbw
Hannah Bloch-Wehba on x
has anyone written about the tech sector's irritating cooptation of the term “democracy” to mean, functionally, anything that is broadly distributed? https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@iwillleavenow
Calli Schroeder on x
Massive privacy violations, unethical employee treatment, lying about credentials and stats... It's bad. And @kashhill's writing and investigating is, as always, excellent here. https://twitter.com/...
@reedabelson
Reed Abelson on x
“The app-ification of mental health care has real problems”: important reminder of concerns as use of tele-therapy soars https://twitter.com/...
@kashhill
Kashmir Hill on x
And there was the time Talkspace said that Trump's election had resulted in a “7x spike in sales” because everyone was going into therapy. @Aaron_Krolik pulled the stats on Talkspace downloads. They actually declined after the election.
@marypcbuk
Mary Branscombe on x
access to therapy is a wonderful thing but boy howdie does the content of your therapy need to stay between you and your therapist, not be fodder for app ML https://twitter.com/...
@kashhill
Kashmir Hill on x
One of the former Talkspace employees still had his burner phone with the fake identity he was supposed to use to give the company's app 5 stars on the App store. https://twitter.com/...
@kashhill
Kashmir Hill on x
Talkspace, a text therapy app made famous by Michael Phelps ads, keeps transcripts for about 7 to 10 years because they're medical records—and data-mines them, of course. But all the other stuff going on there was WILD. https://www.nytimes.com/...