News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by tpowell on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @04:42PM (#14509691)
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

Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by motardo on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:30PM (#14510703)
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.
Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by pamelafox on Thursday June 08, 2017 @10:25AM (#14514363)
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!
Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by DanBC on Thursday June 08, 2017 @12:51PM (#14515401)
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...

Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by still_grokking on Thursday June 08, 2017 @03:35PM (#14516575)
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.

Re:A therapy chatbot for depression by 659087 on Thursday June 08, 2017 @11:51AM (#14515021)
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?