Federal officials are once again cracking down on apps that promise more than they should.
The targets this time are two apps that pledge to help users detect melanoma by analyzing a smartphone photo. The Federal Trade Commission has worked out settlements with the two, MelApp and Mole Detective, and is pursuing action against two marketers of Mole Detective who have refused to settle.
“Truth in advertising laws apply in the mobile marketplace,” Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press release announcing the FTC's actions. “App developers and marketers must have scientific evidence to support any health or disease claims that they make for their apps.”
This isn't the first time the FTC has gone after mHealth apps that offer more than they can deliver, and apps that advertise cancer-detection capabilities have come under the microscope in studies as well. In 2013, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center studied four smartphone apps that analyzed moles for melanoma, and found that one out of every three moles analyzed was misdiagnosed as not worthy of a checkup.
According to the FTC, both apps in question claimed to be able to calculate a mole's melanoma risk based on a smartphone photograph taken by the user, and said the apps could "accurately analyze melanoma risk and … assess such risk in early stages."
MedApp was launched in 2011 by the Health Discovery Corporation and was available online for $1.99. The company has agreed to a settlement with the FTC that bars it from "claiming that any devices detects or diagnoses melanoma or its risk factors, or increases users' chances of early detection, unless the representation is not misleading and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device." The settlement comes with a $17,963 fine.
Mole Detective was launched in January 2012 by New Customer Solutions and was marketed online, in such locations as the Apple and Google app stores, for as much as $4.99. New Customer Solutions owner Kristi Kimball has reached a settlement with the FTC, which includes a $3,930 fine. U.K.-based L Health, which took over marketing for the Mole Detective in August 2012, has not agreed to a settlement, and the FTC is pursuing a litigated judgment.
