> Is there anything intrinsically privacy hostile about this potential industry, beyond sending data to a server - which is something you might do if you engage with doctors or therapists virtually?
Presumably people share things with their romantic partners that they don't share with doctors and therapists (assuming they aren't dating one). People shouldn't be using virtual doctors or therapists for the same reasons though. Everything they reveal about themselves will be collected, analyzed, stored forever, leaked/sold, and ultimately used against them at every opportunity.
It's also basically a myth that only free or cheap services abuse your data. Paid services and extremely expensive products do it all the time too. There is no company that wouldn't make a greater profit by taking your money and then also abusing your data so they pretty much all do it. The only services you can really trust are the ones you can run locally that don't send your data anywhere.
Presumably people share things with their romantic partners that they don't share with doctors and therapists (assuming they aren't dating one). People shouldn't be using virtual doctors or therapists for the same reasons though. Everything they reveal about themselves will be collected, analyzed, stored forever, leaked/sold, and ultimately used against them at every opportunity.
It's also basically a myth that only free or cheap services abuse your data. Paid services and extremely expensive products do it all the time too. There is no company that wouldn't make a greater profit by taking your money and then also abusing your data so they pretty much all do it. The only services you can really trust are the ones you can run locally that don't send your data anywhere.