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Citizens' attitudes to contact tracing apps

Horvath, Laszlo and Banducci, S. and James, O. (2022) Citizens' attitudes to contact tracing apps. Journal of Experimental Political Science 9 (1), pp. 1-13. ISSN 2052-2630.

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Link to Research Data: http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KVKGUB

Abstract

Citizens’ concerns about data privacy and data security breaches may reduce the 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 prioritise privacy and prefer a centralised National Health Service system over a decentralised system. In a further study asking about participants’ preference for digital-only 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. The 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.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): digital contact tracing, privacy, data breach, conjoint experiment
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User: Laszlo Horvath
Date Deposited: 08 Sep 2021 15:23
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2025 03:59
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/45903

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