美国心理健康App出卖个人隐私(上)

There are thousands of mental health apps available on your phone or computer.

你的手机或电脑上可获取数以千计的心理健康应用程序。

They promise all kinds of services including virtual therapy sessions, mood trackers, and meditation guides.

他们承诺提供各种服务，包括虚拟治疗会议、情绪跟踪器和冥想指南。

They can be helpful and affordable tools.

这些工具可能会有帮助且价格实惠。

But what happens with user's personal information.

但用户的个人信息会发生什么呢？

William Brangham has more.

威廉·布兰汉姆带来详细报道。

Demand for mental health care soared during the pandemic, and many Americans turn to these software-based virtual health and wellness apps for care.

疫情期间心理保健的需求飙升，许多美国人转向这些基于软件的虚拟健康应用程序进行护理。

To sign up, users are often asked to fill out their personal and medical histories and answer mental health surveys much like you would at a doctor's office.

注册时，用户通常会被要求填写个人资料和病历，并回答心理健康调查，如同你在医生办公室里做得那样。

But there is little federal oversight to keep that data private.

但联邦政府几乎没有进行监督、保护这些数据的私密性。

A recent report from Duke University found that data brokers were selling information that identified people by their mental health diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

杜克大学最近的一份报告发现，数据中介正在出售人们的信息，这些信息是通过人们的心理健康诊断识别而来，包括抑郁、焦虑和躁郁症的诊断。

Many brokers removed personal information, but some included names and even addresses of individuals seeking care.

许多中介删除了护理人的个人信息，但有些中介没有删去护理人的姓名甚至地址。

Justin Sherman is a Senior Fellow at Duke Sanford School of Public Policy.

贾斯汀·谢尔曼是杜克·桑福德公共政策学院的高级研究员。

He runs their data brokerage project and oversaw this recent report.

他负责数据中介项目，并监督了最近的这份报告。

Justin, thank you so much for being here.

贾斯汀，非常感谢你能参加我们的节目。

I imagine that people would be quite alarmed to know that data brokers were out there selling this information, especially if it was connected to their names.

我想，当人们知道数据中介在出售这些信息时，会相当震惊，特别是如果这些信息与他们的名字相关联的话。

Can you give us a sense of how specific is the data that is being sold?

你能告诉我们正在出售的数据有多具体吗？

Absolutely, we uncovered data brokers selling a range of data about all kinds of mental health conditions dealt with by Americans ranging from depression and anxiety to PTSD, OCD, people battling trauma, and even actually, people who had suffered strokes,

当然，我们发现数据中介正在出售一系列关于美国人应对各种心理健康问题的数据，从抑郁症和焦虑症，到创伤后应激障碍和强迫症，再到与创伤作斗争的患者，甚至是中风患者的信息，

if you imagine, you know, a spreadsheet with rows, right?

如果你想象一下，是一个携带一行行数据的电子表格，对吗？

Perhaps it was something like how many people in a zip code do we think have depression, and they might have the underlying data, but the broker was not itself selling people's names.

也许这是类似于我们认为数字编码中有多少人患有抑郁症，他们可能有潜在的数据，但中介本身并没有出售用户的名字。

We also found cases though, where there would be names attached, there would be address information or email information, and even data on race and ethnicity.

不过，我们发现也有一些案例，会附上姓名、地址信息或电子邮件信息，甚至还有关于种族和民族的数据。

And how many children are in the home?

以及家里有几个孩子的数据？

Can you just help me understand this marketplace?

你能帮我了解一下这个市场吗？

What is the value of selling this information and then reselling it on the marketplace?

在市场上出售与转售这些信息有什么价值？

The reality is that most Americans assume that their health data is protected anywhere, everywhere all the time.

现实情况是，大多数美国人认为他们的健康数据在任何地方、任何时候都受到保护。

But unfortunately, that's just not true.

但不幸的是，事实并非如此。