Empirical Analysis of Sri Lankan Mobile Health Ecosystem: A Precursor to an Effective Stakeholder Engagement

TL;DR

This paper analyzes Sri Lankan mobile health apps to understand privacy risks and stakeholder engagement challenges in light of new health privacy legislation, revealing widespread data sharing with third parties.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of mobile health apps in Sri Lanka, highlighting privacy vulnerabilities and informing effective stakeholder engagement strategies.

Findings

78% of apps share sensitive data with third-party domains

Most apps lack transparency about data sharing practices

Potential privacy issues due to minimal consumer visibility

Abstract

Sri Lanka recently passed its first privacy legislation covering a wide range of sectors, including health. As a precursor for effective stakeholder engagement in the health domain to understand the most effective way to implement legislation in healthcare, we have analyzed 41 popular mobile apps and web portals. We found that 78% of the tested systems have third-party domains receiving sensitive health data with minimal visibility to the consumers. We discuss how this will create potential issues in preparing for the new privacy legislation.