Big Privacy Issues – brightwheel: Child Care App Review

I logged in recently and was shocked to find someone else’s child’s info on my home screen. I was able to access all their care info, see the medications they were taking, all their photos, potentially change personal details; I could have even sent messages as if I was the parent. (Though, of course I did not.) All this blew my mind and gave me pause. As a technologist, I have a few ideas how it might have happened. What I can tell you for certain, there’s no one at BrightWheel all that concerned with the privacy a security of your family’s most intimate information. In fact, we notified BrightWheel immediately after finding this “bug”, and they brushed off our concerns and gave us some possible ways to delete the aberrant user from our profile. In other words, it’s up to us to address their security issue. They appear to have no policies and procedures to deal with what I (as developer) would consider a red alert, all-hands-on-deck emergency. The worst part is that we have no idea now who’s seeing all of OUR child’s info or where else it may be ending up. All this is unfortunate, we otherwise like and enjoy this app quit a bit. But, if you’re at all concerned about the security and privacy of your child’s information, your most intimate information, it’s simply too risky to use this app.
Review by betterPropaganda on brightwheel: Child Care App.