Doctolib

Is Doctolib safe?

For booking a GP, a dentist or a video consultation, Doctolib is a reasonably safe choice. Its record is mixed, but the weak points are known and limited. Health data is stored in the European Union by a certified health-data host, and Doctolib pays outside researchers to report flaws. Against that, an attacker read details of 6,128 appointments in 2020, the app passed appointment searches to Facebook in 2021, and France's competition authority fined it in 2025. We score it 67/100, close to Flo (66) and below MyChart (74), which has no ad tracking.

Where Doctolib keeps your health data

French law requires anyone who hosts health data for others to hold an HDS ("Hébergeur de Données de Santé") certificate. Doctolib's patient privacy policy, dated July 2026, says it uses Amazon Web Services EMEA in Luxembourg as its certified host and stores all personal data there, health data or not, inside the EU. Doctolib itself has held HDS certification as a managed host since 14 October 2021.

Under the GDPRGDPRThe EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which sets rules on how organisations collect and use personal data and allows large fines.More in the glossary, health data is a special category: it can be processed only with explicit consent or on a few narrow grounds. Doctolib asks for consent for the extra health features in its app, such as its paid "Companion" health assistant. Hosting with AWS keeps the data in the EU, but it does not mean the data is end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary. Doctolib can read what it stores.

The 2020 data theft and the 2021 Facebook leak

In July 2020 Doctolib said an attacker had used its interface for partner software to read administrative details of 6,128 appointments: names, sex, phone numbers, emails, and the name and specialty of the practitioner. Doctolib said no visit reasons, medical documents or passwords were exposed. It filed a criminal complaint and told the CNIL, the French data protection authority.

The second incident was about tracking. In June 2021 the German consumer site mobilsicher.de tested the Android app, accepted the consent prompt and searched for a urologist. The app sent the search, the insurance type and the visit reason ("Vasectomy/sterilisation pre-consultation") to Facebook and the ad network Outbrain, along with the user's IP address, netzpolitik.org reported. Doctolib said the cookies only measured marketing campaigns, removed them and asked both companies to delete the data. Berlin's data protection commissioner opened a review; we found no published decision.

What Doctolib does with your data now

Apple's privacy label for the app lists no tracking. The privacy policy goes further. It says Doctolib shows targeted ads on social networks through Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google programmes, and measures its ad campaigns on other sites with cookies if you agree in the cookie banner. We score privacy on the policy, because the label understates it.

Doctolib keeps an inactive account for three years after your last appointment. Messages with its health assistant are kept for two to three years, depending on the purpose.

The competition fine

On 6 November 2025 France's Autorité de la concurrence fined Doctolib €4,665,000 in decision 25-D-06. It found that Doctolib held a dominant position in online medical booking and abused it through exclusivity clauses in contracts with practitioners from 2017 to 2023, by tying video consultations to booking, and through its 2018 takeover of the rival MonDocteur. Doctolib denies being dominant and has appealed; the case is pending. The harm was to competitors and doctors rather than to patients' data, so we count it at half weight.

How to use Doctolib safely

1. Refuse the advertising and audience-measurement cookies in the banner, or change your choice later under cookie management.
2. Only add relatives you actually book for, and remove them when they no longer need you.
3. Book through the app or by typing doctolib.fr or doctolib.de yourself, never through a link in an unexpected text or email.
4. Think before you upload documents or use the paid health assistant: they add health data that Doctolib stores.
5. Delete your account if you stop using it, rather than waiting three years.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (78) is the strongest factor, because the app connects you only with practitioners. Regulatory record (73) reflects a mid-sized competition fine under appeal, counted at half weight, and an open data protection review. Security (66) balances certified EU hosting and a public bug bounty against the 2020 data theft. Privacy (60) is the weakest factor because of the 2021 Facebook leak and today's targeted advertising.