When Privacy, Distrust, and Misinformation Cause Worry About Using COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Apps

Public health authorities worldwide are advocating for contact-tracing apps to help track COVID-19 infections during the pandemic and interrupt virus transmission. However, app users have to share their personally identifiable information, whereabouts, and in some cases, their vaccination records with authorities via mobile Internet. This situation creates grave concerns about how such personal information is transmitted, stored, archived, and disposed. In addition, the apps' technical design would also impact the adoption, such as whether the apps would drain the battery. Further, citizens' high distrust of governments also reduces app adoption. This article reviews recent research on contact-tracing apps and examines how privacy concerns, distrust in governments, and misinformation affect people's perceptions of contact-tracing apps. We recommend possible solutions for promoting these apps by analyzing what we learn from recent literature.