Determinants of the acceptance and adoption of a digital contact tracing tool during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore

Abstract

The motivations that govern the adoption of digital contact tracing (DCT) tools are complex and not well understood. Hence, we assessed the factors influencing the acceptance and adoption of Singapore's national DCT tool -TraceTogetherduring the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 3943 visitors of Tan Tock Seng Hospital from July 2020 to February 2021 and stratified the analyses into three cohorts. Each cohort was stratified based on the time when significant policy interventions were introduced to increase the adoption of TraceTogether. Binary logistic regression was preceded by principal components analysis to reduce the Likert items. Respondents who 'perceived TraceTogether as useful and necessary' had higher likelihood of accepting it but those with 'Concerns about personal data collected by TraceTogether' had lower likelihood of accepting and adopting the tool. The injunctive and descriptive social norms were also positively associated with both the acceptance and adoption of the tool. Liberal individualism was mixed in the population and negatively associated with the acceptance and adoption of TraceTogether. Policy measures to increase the uptake of a national DCT bridged the digital divide and accelerated its adoption. However, good public communications are crucial to address the barriers of acceptance to improve voluntary uptake widespread adoption.

The role of institutional and self in the formation of trust in artificial intelligence technologies

“…The use of AI-tech introduces ethical, legal, and governance challenges (Huang et al, 2022;Mikalef et al, 2022a;Ryan, 2020). Critically, the mass adoption of AI-tech is powered by the generation and consumption of a huge amount of private data and actual decision-making.…”

“…And in situations where mandatory use becomes the norm, the lack of trusted acceptance of a technology depends on the ability to gain reassurance in the mandated usage, not just a lack of choice. The motivations governing the adoption of these tools are only studied recently and are not well understood (Huang et al, 2022). Involuntary use of technologies increases anxiety and reduces technological trust which adversely affects the use of the technology and the overall perception of the institution executing the mandate (Cserdi and Kenesei, 2021).…”

“…For instance, human biases could be as severe and may lead to grave mistakes as they may opt to trust their judgements or colleagues' judgements over that of the application (Venkatesh, 2021). And for some, concerns about privacy and data security deter adoption (Duan and Deng, 2022;Huang et al, 2022). In India for example, the Arogya Setu contact tracing application was initially adopted voluntarily but subsequently became a mandated condition for returning to work notwithstanding its privacy concerns (India Today Tech, 2020).…”

Effectiveness of containment strategies in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission

“…Integrating DCT and conventional measures cannot only leverage the advantages of the two approaches but also help flag exposures and identify asymptomatic infected individuals. DCT entails trade-offs between public health protection and individual privacy [45] . Continued technical improvement may further increase efficacy, particularly across regional borders.…”

Enforcement of the Use of Digital Contact-Tracing Apps in a Common Law Jurisdiction

“…With the zero-COVID-19 policy, the implementation of the mandated use of the digital contact-tracing app and ensuing controversies would likely remain. Transparency, trust building, and public education on both highlighting its public health necessity and addressing the privacy concerns are paramount in promoting its uptake [ 44 , 45 ]. Reliance on punitive measures, while they could be effective in enforcing the use of digital contact-tracing app, may erode trust between citizens and the government.…”