Privacy and confidentiality in mental health solutions: The importance of data security » ifeel - EN

Fortunately, the conversation around mental health in the workplace has evolved: it’s no longer taboo and is now recognised as an essential part of corporate strategy. However, it remains an area that demands the utmost confidentiality and anonymity from professionals and organisations alike.

In this context, caring for employee well-being through mental health solutions is indispensable. Yet, this effort rests, above all, on guaranteeing the security, privacy, and confidentiality of data throughout the entire process. Not only for ethical reasons, but also for profitability: if employees don’t trust that their information will be truly protected, they won’t use the service. As a result, an unused service generates neither diagnosis nor treatment, and consequently, it becomes an expense with no return whatsoever for the company.

This is why privacy and confidentiality within mental health solutions are not mere accessories, but rather represent the mechanism that activates usage, clinical impact and the ROI of mental health solutions.

However, this challenge multiplies in multinational organisations, where protecting psychological information in accordance with corporate standards while simultaneously providing HR and Finance departments with data to prevent risks and make informed decisions, without exposing identities, requires expert design and flawless execution.

Therefore, the answer lies in choosing a provider that guarantees end-to-end confidentiality, so that you can clearly communicate that the service will care for your employees and their data under the highest standards of security and anonymity. This not only reinforces trust but also drives adoption and, therefore, clinical impact.

ifeel positions itself as the ideal strategic partner: on the one hand, it turns information security, regulatory compliance, and aggregated data analytics into a competitive advantage; on the other, it preserves individual privacy and provides actionable intelligence for the business. Ultimately, the impact is directly reflected in the bottom line: less absenteeism, less presenteeism, and lower turnover, without sacrificing what’s essential: your employees’ trust. Continue reading to discover how we do it.

Privacy and confidentiality as ROI enablers

Before discussing metrics and returns, it’s worth remembering something fundamental: in mental health, trust isn’t something that can be bought, it’s something that must be built. And it’s built, precisely, by guaranteeing privacy and confidentiality from the very first contact. Only then will the solution be used, clinical impact will arise, and only then will ROI materialise.

In this sense, the principle is simple and compelling: clinical confidentiality is the necessary condition for sustained use of the service. That’s why ifeel offers an “anonymous and secure space” for each employee, with individual therapy tailored to their level of risk, 24/7 support and over 500 crisis protocols that help executives and managers make decisions at critical moments.

Moreover, thanks to its “Right on Site” strategy, ifeel’s solution is characterised by being accessible even without a corporate email, so that no one in the company is excluded.

This inclusive accessibility, combined with a seamless and secure user experience, increases adoption compared to traditional solutions (such as EAPs). As a consequence, it increases the use of the solution, thereby enhancing clinical impact and, in parallel, generating cost savings through reduced absenteeism and turnover.

However, speed does matter, though never at the expense of privacy and confidentiality. At ifeel, diagnosis and assignment to treatment begin in less than 24 hours, with connection to a guide psychologist in under 30 minutes. This reduces waiting lists, which, in traditional settings, can extend for weeks or months, and, consequently, avoids entirely preventable mental health absences.

Finally, all of this is orchestrated through an architecture that strictly separates individual clinical data (which remains confidential between patient and therapist) from the aggregated data that the company uses to manage risk and measure impact. Thanks to this separation, the organisation obtains actionable information without compromising identities, and the solution maintains its clinical legitimacy and financial effectiveness.

What are the privacy and confidentiality principles at ifeel?

Before scaling a mental health solution, it’s crucial to lay the right foundation: privacy and confidentiality aren’t added at the end; they’re integrated from the beginning. In other words, a clinical service that aspires to be trustworthy and cost-effective must be born with data protection in its DNA and sustain it throughout the entire user lifecycle.

First and foremost, privacy and confidentiality by design and by default mean building the service to protect information at all layers. Therefore, ifeel applies data minimisation, that is, only what is strictly necessary to provide the clinical service is requested, and maintains role-based access controls, segregation of environments and comprehensive encryption: TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 at rest.

Additionally, the platform runs on AWS in the EU (EU-West 1 region) with VPC isolation, reinforced at the perimeter by WAF and Shield. In turn, the APIs are protected with Apigee and the code undergoes continuous security and vulnerability scans. As a complement, annual penetration tests are performed with an external provider, as well as proactive monitoring in AWS (Inspector, Patch Manager), and periodic compliance audits, ensuring that controls not only exist but are verified regularly.

Furthermore, clinical confidentiality is absolute: therapy notes and all patient-therapist interactions remain encrypted and accessible only to both parties. Consequently, the company never receives clinical content or individualising data; instead, Customer Success and operations teams only access internal dashboards with limited and pseudonymised information, always under traceability and granular role control, to maintain anonymity at all times.

Thanks to this architecture, the organisation obtains actionable information in an aggregated format that allows it to make informed decisions constantly, while employees’ identities and their reasons for consultation remain protected at all times.

Clinical methodology: Ethical limits and referral protocols

Similarly, before deploying any large-scale mental health solution, it’s important to map out precisely where to intervene, how to intervene and when to refer. In this sense, clinical ethics isn’t improvised: it’s planned, protocolised and audited, in order to protect individuals and, at the same time, ensure the operational consistency of the programme within the organisation.

To this end, ifeel operates with a framework of five clearly defined risk levels. Very high-risk cases (for example, suicidal ideation with a plan or severe perceptual disturbances) trigger immediate emergency service response and face-to-face referral. Moreover, high and medium levels are addressed through structured video therapy and/or text therapy, applying specific clinical protocols and systematic monitoring of the risk of absenteeism. This way, the boundary policy protects both the individual and the organisation, demonstrating that the speed of access doesn’t compromise either clinical prudence or privacy throughout the process.

In addition, all ifeel therapists are legally authorised to practise, have accredited experience and undergo regular supervision. Furthermore, the quality of care is evaluated with validated and complementary scales, including:

• SOFAS (Social & Occupational Functioning), which measures the overall level of social and occupational functioning
• WSAS (Work and Social Adjustment Scale), which quantifies the degree of symptom interference with occupational and social performance.
• PHQ‑9 (Patient Health Questionnaire‑9), which assesses the severity of depressive symptoms.
• GAD‑7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder‑7), which estimates the intensity of generalised anxiety
• GAS (Goal Attainment Scale), which assesses the degree of attainment of the therapeutic goals agreed between patient and therapist.

Thanks to our clinical methodology and this measurement system, individual confidentiality is respected whilst providing aggregate clinical evidence of functional improvement and reduced risk of absenteeism in the treated cohorts.

Metrics and evidence: Data to make informed decisions

For HR and finance departments, dashboards with aggregated data serve as the bridge between clinical confidentiality and preventive business management. ifeel offers visualisations that report without exposing identities, and segments only when the sample size allows it. In case of small samples, data is aggregated to higher levels or further anonymised, always keeping privacy as a guiding criterion.

What type of data do ifeel dashboards display?

Analytical dimension	What the dashboard shows	How it’s segmented
Risk Levels	Distribution by low/medium/high risk	Region, brand, unit (with minimum case threshold)
Functional Evolution	SOFAS trend and risk transitions by cohorts	Period, area, group (according to sample size)
Clinical Demand	Reasons expressed vs diagnoses detected (e.g., work stress, anxiety, personal development)	Area/shift/role (size permitting)
Service Usage	Video/text therapy and self-care; satisfaction and NPS	Channel, geography, unit
Financial Impact	Absences avoided and ROI with client parameters	Scenario, area, timeframe

Together, these metrics allow management to adjust resources, fine-tune clinical strategy and justify investment with evidence, whilst keeping intact the confidentiality that sustains trust and, therefore, programme performance.

This way, the combination of clinical confidentiality and aggregated data enables the demonstration of value without compromising sensitive information. In fact, it’s the gear that turns the use of the solution into impact and, subsequently, savings for companies.

Compliance and data security

When scaling a mental health solution across a global organisation, it’s imperative to ensure a compliance framework that is consistent, cross-cutting, and auditable across jurisdictions. In other words, clinical confidence must be backed by international standards and verifiable controls that will withstand any compliance review.

For this reason, ifeel has key certifications: ISO/IEC 27001 for information security and ISO 9001 for quality management. In addition, annual penetration tests and monthly security scans are conducted, and a DPO (Data Protection Officer) monitors compliance with the GDPR through regular external audits. In this way, the programme not only complies but demonstrates its compliance on a systematic basis. In addition, HIPAA-compliant controls are in place to protect health information in contexts that require it.

In parallel, ifeel’s “AI-Ready Security” architecture incorporates training dataset anonymisation and data minimisation; therefore, the use of artificial intelligence in triage and predictive analytics processes doesn’t compromise user confidentiality.

Regarding international transfers, the general rule is clear: store and process data in the EU. However, if processing outside the EU is required, adequacy mechanisms or standard contractual clauses are employed and providers are audited to ensure equivalence of protection.

Finally, retention and deletion policies are aligned with the purposes and applicable regulations, including anonymisation at the user’s request and destruction after the legal deadlines, which reinforces comprehensive data governance.

Control and confidentiality guarantees

Dimension	Control/Guarantee
Information Security	ISO 27001, annual pentests, AWS monitoring, WAF/Shield
Encryption	TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest; VPC per environment
Clinical Confidentiality	Exclusive therapist-patient access; company receives only aggregated data
Compliance	GDPR with external audits, HIPAA-ready, DPO
Transfers	Data hosted in EU; standard clauses/adequacy for third countries

Explore ifeel’s real impact through our case studies

To gain a deep understanding of how ifeel has transformed mental wellbeing across different organisations and sectors, we invite you to download our other case studies. These detail real experiences, clinical and financial results, and the personalised strategies we have implemented to maximise impact on teams’ emotional health and productivity.

Discover how leading companies in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, finance, automotive, retail, hospitality, technology, and energy have reduced absenteeism, improved engagement, and fostered a healthy organisational culture thanks to our comprehensive solution.

Do not miss the opportunity to draw inspiration from these examples and take mental well‑being in your organisation to the next level.

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