ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2021
Adoption of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: A Balance Between Privacy and Effectiveness.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- COVID-19 Contact Tracing Strategies During the First Wave of the Pandemic: Systematic Review of Published Studies.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Pooled it
- Data Management and Privacy Policy of COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Apps: Systematic Review and Content Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Pooled it
- Factors Influencing the Adoption of Contact Tracing Applications: Systematic Review and Recommendations.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Pooled it
- Assessing the User Experience of the EU Mobile App for Cancer Prevention: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- The Emergence of AI in Public Health Is Calling for Operational Ethics to Foster Responsible Uses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Epidemiological methods in transition: Minimizing biases in classical and digital approaches.PLOS digital health · 2025Review
- Determinants of Citizens' Intention to Participate in Self-Led Contact Tracing: Cross-Sectional Online Questionnaire Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Contextual Acceptance of COVID-19 Mitigation Mobile Apps in the United States: Mixed Methods Survey Study on Postpandemic Data Privacy.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Identifying Barriers to the Adoption of Digital Contact Tracing Apps in England: Semistructured Interview Study With Professionals Involved in the Pandemic Response.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Changes to Public Health Surveillance Methods Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Investigating Citizens' Acceptance of Contact Tracing Apps: Quantitative Study of the Role of Trust and Privacy.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Article
- A Survey on harnessing the Applications of Mobile Computing in Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Solutions.Computer networks · 2023Review
- A Study of Users' Privacy Preferences for Data Sharing on Symptoms-Tracking/Health App.Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society. ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society · 2022Article
- Enforcement of the Use of Digital Contact-Tracing Apps in a Common Law Jurisdiction.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Utilization of Random Forest Classifier and Artificial Neural Network for Predicting Factors Influencing the Perceived Usability of COVID-19 Contact Tracing "MorChana" in Thailand.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Public Perspectives on Exposure Notification Apps: A Patient and Citizen Co-Designed Study.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- A Layered Adopter-Structure Model for the Download of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: A System Dynamics Study for mHealth Penetration.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Reasons for Nonuse, Discontinuation of Use, and Acceptance of Additional Functionalities of a COVID-19 Contact Tracing App: Cross-sectional Survey Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2022Article
- How is "solidarity" understood in discussions about contact tracing apps? An overview.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- Identifying and addressing digital health risks associated with emergency pandemic response: Problem identification, scoping review, and directions toward evidence-based evaluation.International journal of medical informatics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
With the relative ubiquity of smartphones, contact tracing and exposure notification apps have been looked to as novel methods to help reduce the transmission of COVID-19. Many countries have created apps that lie across a spectrum from privacy-first approaches to those that have very few privacy measures. The level of privacy incorporated into an app is largely based on the societal norms and values of a particular country. Digital health technologies can be highly effective and preserve privacy at the same time, but in the case of contact tracing and exposure notification apps, there is a trade-off between increased privacy measures and the effectiveness of the app. In this article, examples from various countries are used to highlight how characteristics of contract tracing and exposure notification apps contribute to the perceived levels of privacy awarded to citizens and how this impacts an app's effectiveness. We conclude that finding the right balance between privacy and effectiveness, while critical, is challenging because it is highly context-specific.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.