Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

August 10, 2020

Acceptability of App-Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19: Cross-Country Survey Evidence

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  • Altmann et al. measured support for digital contact tracing of COVID-19 infections using anonymous online surveys of 5,995 people in France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US. In spite of concerns about cyber-security and privacy and a lack of trust in governments, they found strong support (>68%) for installing and using a digital contact tracing app that would automatically notify users if they have been in close contact for at least 15 minutes with an infected person. 
  • There was little correlation between regional-level COVID-19 mortality and support for the app. 
  • American and German respondents reported stronger privacy and security concerns compared to other countries, but a large majority still said that they would probably or definitely install or keep the app on their phones. 

Altmann et al. (May 4, 2020). Acceptability of App-Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19: Cross-Country Survey Evidence (Preprint). JMIR MHealth and UHealth. https://doi.org/10.2196/19857