COVID-19 Apps and Privacy Protections from Users' Perspective

As the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be a global challenge, there have been numerous efforts and actions from both government and private organizations towards keeping their community members healthy and safe. One of the approaches is to use mobile apps to trace contacts and update the status of the infected individuals efficiently and conveniently so that the spread of COVID-19 can be minimized and contained. While these apps could offer many advantages, it also raises serious privacy concerns for many users and hence possibly refusing to adopt it. In this study, we aim to understand the users' expectations on the privacy protections and the provisions under which they are willing to use COVID-19 apps. We believe our study results can guide policymakers and app developers on the design, deployment, and acceptability of the COVID-19 apps that can be widely adopted.