Mobile apps for people with dementia: Are they compliant with the general data protection regulation (GDPR)?

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2019

Authors

Muchagata, J (Author) Other; ferreira, a (Author) FMUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2019) - Volume 5: HEALTHINF, Prague, Czech Republic, February 22-24, 2019.

Pages: 68-77

12th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2019 - Part of 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2019

22 February 2019 through 24 February 2019

Indexing

Scopus - 2 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Q-GZT

DOI: 10.5220/0007352200680077

Abstract (EN): Mobile apps have the potential to improve the overall patients and caregivers' quality of life and, particularly, of those with dementia. The ability to stimulate cognitive functions, keep the brain active and helping people to be as independent as possible in their daily lives are considered highly valued characteristics. But despite those advantages, there is a lack of security standards and guidelines focused on mobile apps and the general sense is that those provide low or no privacy/security and commonly do not comply with current regulations. We analysed eighteen apps with the ability to stimulate cognitive functions for people with dementia to verify if they were GDPR compliant. Results show that most analysed apps (78%) do not provide any information regarding how personal data are processed, and if they do, this is not clear. Also, users' consent to allow that processing is rarely sought (11%). In conclusion, GDPR mandated requirements are still not implemented in most of the analysed mental health apps to ensure privacy and security in the interactions between users and mobile apps. This work intends to bring awareness to this issue to both researchers and developers, especially in the area of healthcare and mental health.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific