Watch our new video about Talkspace continuing violations of NYC teen privacy

Please watch the brief video above about how the online mental health company Talkspace, which has a $26M contract with the NYC Department of Health, continues to share NYC teen data with ad trackers and social media companies — the very same companies NYC is suing for undermining their mental health. This is despite our repeated letters to the Department of Health, raising our privacy concerns starting last September.

Also, check out this recent piece in Gizmodo, that reports that now Seattle and Baltimore schools also have similar contracts with Talkspace to provide free mental health to teens, with likely similar data privacy violations.

Moreover, as the Gizmodo article revealed, Talkspace is now developing a “Personalized Podcast” created through AI, that harvests patients’ personal mental health info from their therapy sessions and feeds it back to them in the form of a sound file. One can only imagine the damage this could cause to vulnerable teens if someone got hold of the sound files on their phones or they themselves played them back inadvertently in public. Not even considering how the use of AI chatbots can itself be perilous, as shown by the recent lawsuit filed by parents who allege that a chatbot caused their son to commit suicide.

One clarification: though the Gizmodo article notes that after we brought attention to this issue, ad-trackers were removed from the NYC Teenspace landing page, we found many other pages on its website are still collecting and disclosing teens’ personal data,  as our video explains above, including the page featuring the new supposedly improved Teenspace Privacy Policy.  We wrote about our findings in our most recent letter sent to the NYC Department of Health more than a month ago, and yet have gotten no response.

Parents: If your child has visited the Teenspace website or has signed up for their services, please contact us at [email protected] as soon as possible.

Continuing Teenspace privacy violations, despite assurances from city

January 8, 2025

Below is the letter PCSP, NYCLU and AI for Families sent yesterday  to the NYC Department of Health, in response to their latest letter dated Dec. 18, 2024.

We were happy to learn that the Department of Health and Mental Health (DOHMH) is now requiring Talkspace to rewrite their contract providing online mental health services for NYC teens, as well as their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to be more privacy protective, in response to the concerns we expressed on September 10 and October 17, 2024.

Yet we find the DOHMH claim in their latest missive that the Talkspace/Teenspace website has now eliminated the use of invasive ad trackers, cookies and personal information disclosures to social media platforms to be wholly inaccurate.

In this follow-up letter we discuss our findings and continuing concerns.  We urge DOHMH to make more effective efforts to protect the privacy of NYC teens, including requiring Talkspace to build an entirely new website dedicated to NYC Teenspace services, free of trackers and disclosures, and that it undergo a privacy audit before making it live.

Talkspace should also be required to delete all the personal information already illegitimately collected and shared of NYC children, and make an apology and recompense to those families whose privacy was violated.  We also ask why if Talkspace has violated its original contract as DOHMH has implied, whether they will be fined or suffer any penalty.

NYCLU PCSP AIF Reply to DOHMH re persistent privacy issues w. Teenspace 1.8.2025

Council hearings and testimony on student mental health & Teenspace

Video above of CM Joseph’s incisive questioning of Marnie Davidoff, Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Children, Youth and Families about Teenspace lax privacy practices, followed by video of Leonie Haimson, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, speaking on the same issue.  Leonie’s written testimony is below, followed by the testimony of Shannon Edwards, founder of AI for Families.  Chalkbeat and Crain’s Health Pulse also reported on the issue.

Council testimony about teenspace 11.25.24 Mental Health Testimony_S.Edwards 11.24.24

Chancellor to create a Work Group to improve the terrible privacy regs

Nov. 22, 2024

After our letter and more than 3,000 parent emails were sent to the new DOE Chancellor and members of the Panel for Educational Policy, she was alerted to the fact that their privacy regulations were not acceptable to parents and other members of the community.  Chancellor Ramos reached out, and last week we had a good meeting with her,  along with parent leaders and advocates, as well as many top DOE officials and legal staff on this issue.

The Chancellor was great and quickly agreed to our suggestion to create a working group that would collaborate to revise the regulations to so that students’ safety and privacy are not put at unacceptable risk by allowing the unrestricted release of their sensitive data.  At this point, the PEP vote on the regs is indefinitely postponed. Yesterday’s Politico Playbook briefly reported on this development.

Thanks so much for the letters of support sent in recent days from  UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Council Members Krishnan, Joseph, and Aviles, and the Center on Race and Digital Justice, urging the DOE to revise the regulations and restrict the disclosure of personal data to better ensure student privacy and safety, including to prevent the harassment and deportation of migrant children.  Those letters are below.

Council letter vs draft Chancellors regulations A-820 Mulgrew letter to Chancellor opposed to weakening of CR A-820 concerning student privacy Center on Race and Digital Justice letter to Chancellor

Safeguarding your child’s personal data: Threat to student privacy from DOE’s use of digital learning, Teenspace, College Board, AI & more


Oct. 24, 2024

Last night we held a privacy briefing, pointing out the flaws in the privacy practices and policies of the NYC Dept. of Education.  Co-sponsored by AQE, and with the participation of Beth Haroules of NYCLU, it was well-attended, with lots of good questions .   We hope to have video soon.

For those who could not attend, you can  watch the video above and/or check out the slightly updated presentation here and below. If your parent or community group would like a similar briefing, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] 
Privacy briefing 10.23.24 final