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The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the development of smartphone applications to assist disease management. Many "corona apps" require widespread adoption to be efective, which has sparked public debates about the privacy, security, and societal implications of government-backed health applications. We conducted a representative online study in Germany (n = 1003), the US (n = 1003), and China (n = 1019) to investigate user acceptance of corona apps, using a vignette design based on the contextual integrity framework. We explored apps for contact tracing, symptom checks, quarantine enforcement, health certifcates, and mere information. Our results provide insights into data processing practices that foster adoption and reveal signifcant diferences between countries, with user acceptance being highest in China and lowest in the US. Chinese participants prefer the collection of personalized data, while German and US participants favor anonymity. Across countries, contact tracing is viewed more positively than quarantine enforcement, and technical malfunctions negatively impact user acceptance. CCS CONCEPTS• Security and privacy → Social aspects of security and privacy; Domain-specifc security and privacy architectures; • Humancentered computing → Empirical studies in HCI .

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False information on social media poses a crucial threat to our society, and calls for interventions to combat this problem are becoming louder. Users themselves may have the potential to diminish the impact of misleading information. In an online experiment with a 3 x 3 between-subjects design (credibility evaluation in user comments: positive vs. negative vs. none) x (numerical credibility rating: positive vs. negative vs. none), we tested the influence of bandwagon cues on the impact of a false news post on Facebook (N = 240). Contrary to prevalent assumptions regarding heuristic information processing, numerical credibility ratings had no influence on participants’ credibility appraisals and intended sharing behavior. However, negative user comments diminished the believability of false news. Moreover, participants’ willingness to share the news post publicly and privately was indirectly reduced by the effect of negative user comments on perceived news credibility.

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