Digital Contact Tracing Applications during COVID-19: A Scoping Review about Public Acceptance

Abstract

Digital contact tracing applications (CTAs) have been one of the most widely discussed technical methods of controlling the COVID-19 outbreak. The effectiveness of this technology and its ethical justification depend highly on public acceptance and adoption. This study aims to describe the current knowledge about public acceptance of CTAs and identify individual perspectives, which are essential to consider concerning CTA acceptance and adoption. In this scoping review, 25 studies from four continents across the globe are compiled, and critical topics are identified and discussed. The results show that public acceptance varies across national cultures and sociodemographic strata. Lower acceptance among people who are mistrusting, socially disadvantaged, or those with low technical skills suggest a risk that CTAs may amplify existing inequities. Regarding determinants of acceptance, eight themes emerged, covering both attitudes and behavioral perspectives that can influence acceptance, including trust, privacy concerns, social responsibility, perceived health threat, experience of and access to technologies, performance expectancy and perceived benefits, and understanding. Furthermore, widespread misconceptions about the CTA function are a topic in need of immediate attention to ensure the safe use of CTAs. The intention-action gap is another topic in need of more research.

Understanding Trust and Changes in Use After a Year With the NHS COVID-19 Contact Tracing App in the United Kingdom: Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study

“…Several studies investigated people’s perceptions and attitudes in relation to the acceptance and adoption of DCT [ 3 - 6 ], privacy and ethical concerns [ 7 - 9 ], and the type of messaging used to promote the apps (eg, targeting individualism or collectivism) [ 7 , 10 ]. Although conducted using hypothetical apps and scenarios, early studies found that large percentages of the people consulted said they would use the apps if they became available and that, initially, many people had positive perceptions toward DCT as a medium for minimizing the spread of the virus in society [ 3 , 11 ].…”

Individuality and Fairness in Public Health Surveillance Technology: A Survey of User Perceptions in Contact Tracing Apps

“…By contrast, collectivistic persons or cultures value group belonging and loyalty and derive beliefs from group decisions and the social system [42]. Studies that measured public acceptance of digital contact tracing applications during Covid-19 have found the acceptance rate to be nearly twice as high in collectivist countries such as China than in individualistic countries such as Germany [43]. We might also expect cultural and social norms to affect people's evaluations of fairness and preferences for individualized approaches.…”

Are AI systems biased against the poor? A machine learning analysis using Word2Vec and GloVe embeddings

“…AI systems are not ethically neutral but, more and more, we are all dependent on AI for our decisions (Fry 2018 ). In the information society, AI is at the core of high risk services, such as healthcare (Watson et al 2019 ; Zetterholm et al 2021 ; Vallès-Peris and Domènech 2021 ), financial services (Kostka 2019 ; Townson 2020 ; Lee and Floridi 2020 ; Aggarwal 2020 ; Anshari et al 2021 ) justice and security (Poitras 2014 ; Hauge et al 2016 ; Merler et al 2019 ; Green et al 2019 ) and even the military (de Vynck 2021 ). AI is also an integral part of marketing, predicting users’ interests through big data that contain each person’s personal digital profile, in what has been called “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff 2019 ).…”