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Comment by tpowell | Hacker News Reader

This is an excellent idea, but their loose stance on privacy doesn't seem to line up with the intended field. Even a cursory look over their privacy policy raises questions (third party marketing, data in the event of a sale/acquisition). As for Messenger, they merely provide a link to Facebook's privacy policy.

I wish it outlined, in plain language, how private (or not) the transcripts of my chat data are and the retention policies associated with said data.

http://woebot.io/privacy

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When I read the headline, my first impression was great! But digging deeper:

  - The name woebot - is this a joke?
  - The company is made up of 5 cs engeneers, only 1 clinical psycologist, and 1 ceo/doctor (of what?)
  - It's a for-profit paid business, not a make-the-world-better university project

Yuck. Just no.

Hello! I'm Pamela, CTO@Woebot. I agree that the privacy policy is confusing, and I've started to make a list of standard questions that people ask Woebot about privacy. I'd like to make a TLDR at the top that covers the FAQs. Could you let me know what particular questions you want answered, so that it can cover that? Thank you!

I'm giving you sensitive personal information.

Are you complying with current UK / EU laws about how you handle that data? Will you be compliant with GDPR when it comes in?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regula...

A TLDR won't help, until you overhaul all of the tech you use.

FB is a no-go!

Using so much tracking on your website that it's broken with ad-blocker and FF tracking protection on is a no-go!

In the current state the only sane thing to do is to warn people to not use your service.

The main thing you're achieving with this, is providing Facebook with a marketing data point.

Chats with woebot == user suffering from depression

Combined with Facebook's previous psychological experimentation on users, your entire business model should be seen as harmful.

Have you thought through the ethical implications of what you're doing, at all?

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