The SimplePractice Lawsuit Is Just the Beginning: What Therapists Need to Know About Their Data

So you have probably seen the ads. Scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and suddenly there it is: "Are you a SimplePractice user? You may be part of a class action lawsuit." And maybe you felt that familiar tightening in your chest. That low grade dread that comes with realizing you might have signed something you did not fully understand. Again.

Pull up a chair, y'all. Pour yourself something warm. Because Kelly Higdon and Miranda Palmer broke this all down on the latest episode of Starting a Private Practice, and if you have been feeling overwhelmed by the noise around this, we want to help you actually understand what is going on and what you can do about it.

This is not about scaring you. It is about getting you informed. Because that is where your power lives.

It Is Not Just About One App

When news of the SimplePractice lawsuit started circulating, the immediate response for a lot of therapists was something like: okay, so I just need to switch platforms and I will be fine. And we completely understand that impulse. It is an understandable reaction when things feel overwhelming. You want a clear, simple action you can take.

But here is the thing: this is not a SimplePractice problem. This is an industry wide problem. And it looks a lot like what happened when the FTC went after BetterHelp for misusing client data. The pattern keeps showing up because the underlying business model keeps creating the conditions for it.

As Miranda Palmer put it in the episode: "When you take a therapist out of leadership and you put a venture capital or a tech person into that space, it changes all of the regulations. When you start to have a scenario where this person has to, based on the contract, do their fiduciary duty to the stockholders... that becomes the top legal priority over the clinical outcomes or over the safety of the client's data."

Takeaway: The lawsuit is a symptom. The business model is the diagnosis.

Tip: Before you panic and switch software, go watch the free Terms of Service training at zynnyme.com/free. It features a mental health attorney and the team at Person Centered Tech walking through what these documents actually say and what to look for. It will genuinely change the way you read anything you are asked to sign.

Cookies Are Not Just an Internet Quirk. They Are a Clinical Ethics Issue.

Let's talk about what data actually means in this context. Because most of us have a vague sense that "cookies track us" and we click accept on the banner and move on with our day. But when you are running a therapy practice, the stakes are completely different.

Cookies, tracking scripts, and analytics tools can capture what your clients are searching for, what boxes they check when they are finding a therapist, and what kind of support they are looking for. And when that information flows through a platform that has not properly protected it, suddenly someone who privately reached out for help with anxiety or substance abuse is getting served targeted ads based on that very private disclosure.

"The law says that we're not allowed to do that," Miranda explains in the episode. "That somebody coming for health care information, their health care information, their desires should not be used to target them."

And the redaction issue runs deeper than most of us realize. It is not enough to remove a client's first and last name. Protected health information includes IP addresses, web URLs, identifying numbers, and anything that could make a person recognizable. The same way a court document with blacked out text can still be readable if the redaction is incomplete, data that seems anonymized often is not.

Takeaway: HIPAA compliance as a checkbox is not the same as your clients actually being protected.

Tip: Go into every platform you use and turn off every tracking and analytics option you can find. Turn off scripts, turn off cookies, opt out wherever there is an option. It is not foolproof but it matters.

Read the Part About "Research and Development." Seriously.

Here is a clause that appears in a lot of software terms of service, and it is one of the most important things to understand. When a platform says it can use the information it collects for research and development for itself, its affiliates, its subsidiaries, and its business partners, that language is doing a lot of work.

Think about what that means if you are using a platform that records your video sessions and generates transcripts for documentation purposes. The recording gets deleted, they say. But the transcript stays. And the transcript is covered under those terms.

As Miranda described it in the episode: "Can you imagine if you were talking with another therapist and you didn't say the name of your client, but you were doing a case consultation and somebody overheard it and they took a recording of it and then it went viral on social media? Can you imagine how that would feel?"

Now connect one more dot. The investors behind some of these EHR companies are the same investors funding AI companies that describe their products as being built on the largest dataset of real therapist interactions. That is not a coincidence.

Takeaway: The transcript of your client's session may be more valuable to your EHR company than the subscription fee you are paying them.

Tip: Look specifically for "research and development," "affiliates," and "subsidiaries" language in any terms of service you are reviewing. That is where you will find the broadest grants of permission. And if you are using a platform that records sessions, ask directly and in writing what happens to that data.

Your Voice and Likeness Are Also in Play

This one is newer territory but it is moving fast. Some terms of service include language granting platforms the right to use your voice and likeness. And with AI voice cloning becoming more accessible by the day, this is not a theoretical concern.

Miranda shared that she and Kelly actually removed their podcast from Spotify when they saw how the terms of service were written. Because those thousands of hours of audio could potentially be used in ways they never agreed to in spirit, even if they had technically clicked accept at some point.

"Can you imagine if suddenly your face and your voice was being used to promote this company that maybe you quit three months ago?" Miranda said in the episode.

If you have done video content, recorded webinars, or done telehealth sessions with any platform, this is worth paying attention to.

Takeaway: Your voice, your face, and your expertise are assets. Treat them that way.

Tip: Search for "voice," "likeness," "image," and "recordings" in any platform's terms of service. If there is language in there that feels broad, that is worth a conversation with a healthcare attorney before you continue.

The Isolation Is Not an Accident

Here is where this conversation gets even more real. Because underneath all of this data and legal stuff is something that Kelly and Miranda keep coming back to: therapists are exhausted, isolated, and often feel like they have no one to talk to about any of this.

And that isolation is not incidental. When you are seeing 40 or 50 clients a week behind a screen, rarely in the same physical space as other clinicians, and logging into platforms where the rules change constantly, it becomes very hard to even notice what is happening around you. Let alone organize a response to it.

"That's capitalism at work," Miranda said in the episode. "It wants to keep us isolated, not talking to each other, because then we just stay cogs in the wheel versus if we start organizing or talking or sharing, then that disrupts the system."

When you look at how unions come together, it happens because people are in community. They are having actual conversations. They are building enough trust to take a risk together. That kind of organizing is not possible when everyone is burned out and alone.

Takeaway: The industry cannot exploit an organized, connected community of therapists the way it can exploit isolated ones.

Tip: Get honest with yourself about how connected you actually are right now. Not online groups, not comment sections. Real relationships with colleagues you trust. If that has slipped, start there. One coffee. One phone call. One case consultation. Community is how we change things.

Finding Your Power Without Burning Out in the Process

So how do you hold all of this without going into shutdown? Because the all or nothing response is real. You hear about a lawsuit and you either panic and spiral or you go numb and file it away for later. Neither one of those actually helps you.

Miranda offered something in this episode that really stuck. She talked about two different kinds of energy that move people into action. There is the person who is pulled toward a vision of something better, who can imagine the field they want to work in and move toward it in a place of peace and ease. And there is the person who is pushed by ethical rage, who sees what is wrong and gets energized by the frustration of it.

Both are legitimate. Both are needed. The key is knowing which one is yours so you can use it instead of being used by it.

"Anger and rage is a gift," Kelly shared. "They show me where action is needed, where a boundary is needed, where speaking up is needed."

Takeaway: You do not have to process this perfectly. You just have to process it in a way that moves you toward something instead of into shutdown.

Tip: Check in with your body as you are reading this. What are you noticing? Are you tightening up, spacing out, getting fired up? Those responses are data. They are telling you something about where you are and what you need. Do not skip that step.

This Is Your Invitation to Get Informed

Building a private practice right now means navigating a level of complexity that none of us were trained for. And you did not know what you did not know when you signed up for the platforms you use. That is true. That is real. And beating yourself up about it is not the move.

But now we know more. And knowing more means we can do more. Read your terms. Turn off your tracking. Get the free training. Talk to your colleagues. And keep building the kind of practice that lets you actually own your work.

Because this field needs you in it. And it needs you informed, connected, and not alone.

Resources:

• Free Terms of Service Training (featuring a mental health attorney and Person Centered Tech): zynnyme.com/free

• Questions? Reach us at help@zynnyme.com

• Starting a Private Practice podcast: find it wherever you listen to podcasts

• Business School for Therapists (the community Kelly & Miranda run)

• Connect on TikTok for real-time conversations & tips: @zynnyme

About the Authors: Kelly Higdon and Miranda Palmer are the co-founders of ZynnyMe and creators of Business School for Therapists. Since 2010, they've helped tens of thousands of therapists build sustainable practices through organic digital marketing strategies that actually work—without wasting money on ads or time on tactics that don't convert. Because your practice deserves to be found by the people who need you most. Learn more here.