Citizens’ Attitudes to Contact Tracing Apps
Horvath, L; Banducci, S; James, O
Date: 2 September 2020
Article
Journal
Journal of Experimental Political Science
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publisher DOI
Related links
Abstract
Citizens’ concerns about data privacy and data security breaches may reduce adoption of COVID-19 contact tracing mobile phone applications, making them less effective. We implement a choice experiment (conjoint experiment) where participants indicate which version of two contact tracing apps they would install, varying the apps’ ...
Citizens’ concerns about data privacy and data security breaches may reduce adoption of COVID-19 contact tracing mobile phone applications, making them less effective. We implement a choice experiment (conjoint experiment) where participants indicate which version of two contact tracing apps they would install, varying the apps’ privacy-preserving attributes. Citizens do not always prioritize privacy and prefer a centralised National Health Service system over a decentralised system. In a further study asking about participants’ preference for digital vs human-only contact tracing, we find a mixture of digital and human contact tracing is supported. We randomly allocated a subset of participants in each study to receive a stimulus priming data breach as a concern, before asking about contact tracing. Salient threat of unauthorised access or data theft does not significantly alter preferences in either study. We suggest COVID-19 and trust in a national public health service system mitigate respondents’ concerns about privacy.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Item views 0
Full item downloads 0