Better Health for All

Talkspace's core business model is entirely focused on providing mental health services, connecting patients, therapists, and insurers, which delivers substantial health benefits.

The company has no products with significant negative health impacts. Talkspace invests in AI-driven efficiencies to automate therapist workflows and simplify patient onboarding. The company targets vulnerable populations such as military families (TRICARE), Medicare members, and underserved communities through partnerships with schools and municipalities, aiming to reach 33 million traditional Medicare members by year-end 2024 and covering 140 million Americans through insurance. However, U.S. Senators have raised concerns regarding the company's data privacy and sharing practices, including allegations of sharing sensitive patient data with third parties like Google and Facebook, and treating treatment transcripts as data for mining. Talkspace is also alleged to not allow deletion of chat logs. Despite the company stating its platform meets HIPAA requirements, these concerns indicate basic data protection with some vulnerabilities and limited transparency about data usage.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Talkspace faces multiple allegations of unfair pricing practices, including enrolling consumers into automatically recurring subscription plans without their permission

, failing to disclose auto-renewal on checkout pages , and forcing patients to forfeit paid-for therapy sessions unused within 30 days, even if therapists are unavailable . The company is also accused of billing patients when therapists are not available or when appointments haven't been booked , and charging credit cards without consent . Complaints include a $175 no-show fee for a hospitalized patient and a $125 charge for an unbooked session . Former employees claimed Talkspace mined confidential therapy sessions for marketing phrases . The sign-up process is alleged to deceive customers into unknowingly purchasing an automatically renewing monthly plan , and customers report difficulties navigating the website and insurance submission process . While Talkspace launched the Access Project to increase mental health access for underserved communities , offering 1,000 free months of therapy , this is a specific initiative rather than a quantifiable share of its overall customer base.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

Talkspace, Inc. operates as a virtual behavioral healthcare company, providing online therapy services. Its business model does not involve the procurement or trade of physical commodities, nor does it have a traditional supply chain that would require fair-trade certifications, supplier audits, or traceability of materials. Consequently, there is no evidence in the provided articles regarding fair-trade certified spend, audit frequency for suppliers, forced or child labor incidents in an upstream supply chain, supply chain traceability, remediation speed for supply chain violations, ethical clauses in supplier contracts, spend on high-risk materials, or supplier diversity spend related to physical goods.

All relevant KPIs are therefore assessed as N/A.

Honest & Fair Business

Talkspace identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting, including issues with aggregating open control deficiencies, general information technology controls, and accounting for complex financial instruments.

This led to a restatement of its audited financial statements for the period from February 6, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The company encourages immediate and anonymous reporting of violations of its Conduct and Ethics Code, indicating a basic policy is in place. Talkspace has implemented an anti-corruption policy with formal training and monitoring programs, but the effectiveness of these programs is not publicly measured. The company obtains third-party examinations of its security and data privacy controls, including a Type II SOC 2 report in August 2021, which noted effective controls over its platform. However, Talkspace was involved in a controversy where it was collecting and sharing personal data of teens, leading the NYC Department of Health to require a contract rewrite and changes to its privacy policy.

Planet-Friendly Business

No specific, quantitative data is publicly available for Talkspace, Inc. regarding its environmental performance across any of the assessed KPIs.

The company has not disclosed information on its greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy usage, water consumption, waste diversion rates, or any climate-related targets or initiatives. There is also no information available on environmental compliance violations or certifications.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Talkspace has no reported cultural appropriation incidents.

The company offers therapy in over 25 languages, demonstrating strong local language support in its services.

Safe & Smart Tech

Talkspace states its platform is fully encrypted and uses two-factor authentication.

The company claims HIPAA compliance and undergoes annual third-party security assessments. It developed an AI algorithm in partnership with NYU Grossman School of Medicine, trained on anonymized, client-consented therapy transcripts, which identified suicide risk with 83% accuracy compared to human experts. More than 50% of flagged individuals who continued care demonstrated improved outcomes. However, Talkspace does not provide transparency on how its AI matching algorithm works. Former employees alleged in 2020 that anonymized conversations were mined for marketing purposes, and concerns about unauthorized data use, including client conversations, have been raised. Deletion rights are limited to specific regions (California, EU, EEA, UK). In 2020, a security researcher reported a bug, and Talkspace threatened to sue, indicating a poor vulnerability disclosure process. The company states data retention is in accordance with local laws and legitimate business purposes, but no specific data minimization practices are described.