Alan Butler Executive Director and President | Official website
Contradictory claims have emerged regarding the confidentiality of conversations held through the 988 Lifeline service. While Vibrant, which promotes the service, describes 988Lifeline as “a leader in… mental health crisis care” offering “confidential” conversations with trained counselors, its Terms of Service state in large capital letters that talking to a 988 counselor “DOES NOT CONSTITUTE” either “MENTAL HEALTH CARE” or “CONFIDENTIAL” communication.
Chris Frascella, counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), highlighted these latter claims as a "red flag," suggesting that Vibrant may be attempting to avoid HIPAA’s confidentiality requirements for mental health care records. "The fact that they’re saying it suggests that’s what they’re trying to do," Frascella said.
A potential solution proposed involves implementing a brief, straightforward, and highly visible privacy policy across all 988 call centers. This policy would ensure the absolute confidentiality of all callers by routinely deleting recorded conversations within a very limited time frame and gathering clear, informed consent from both callers and call-attendants before sharing any conversation for research purposes.
Frascella also noted that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) might have grounds to intervene. "If you don’t say something in a privacy policy that you should say, then that is an unfair, deceptive act or practice," he explained. "It’s possible that the FTC might have authority to go after some of these [988] service providers."
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