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Android apps with AI chatbot for health support are being questioned for their safety and data privacy for the users.
Thousands of apps with millions of downloads are being scrutinised.
Some of the popular Android apps with millions of downloads are putting millions of users at risk especially with how they handle your data. The report from a research firm shares some worrying details that will once again worry Google and its ongoing issues with dangerous app behaviours.
The latest episode is linked to mental health apps and the amount of personal data that are shared with these platforms, any security risk puts more doubts about using them. The report from Bleeping Computer, quoting an Oversecured report suggests there are thousands of AI-based chatbot apps that can be exposed to gather the private chats of people.
AI Apps Putting Millions At Risk
The report says Android apps with over 15 million downloads are facing scrutiny and these apps have been discovered to have over 1000s of vulnerabilities. Hackers can use these to exploit and steal login data or even find the targeted user through these apps. The moment you hear AI chatbots these days, the security risks are magnified further, especially when millions are signing up for these apps and sharing private data.
Some might say health related data are not that confidential as, let’s say, stealing money, but in this age when health data (or any data) is a source of training AI and other applications, it is important to have the right support and security for such platforms. Which is why the research firm saying the safety levels of these apps is a concern will leave people further cagey of using these AI apps for health related matters.
How It Can Affect Users
The security issues with these apps can be misused in a way that regular users will not be alerted either by their phone or Google. But if the hacker is able to bypass the security and really take advantage of the issues they can easily access the data through these vulnerable apps.
The research firm is also worried that most of these apps have not been updated to fix the issues. Some of them last got their update late 2024 or last year. The report also mentions that most of the vulnerable apps are yet to confirm these exploits and also tell if they have fixed all of them.
Delhi, India, India
March 02, 2026, 08:35 IST
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