Summary

The COVID19 pandemic spread across the world in late 2019 and early 2020. As the pandemic spread, technologists joined forces with public health officials to develop apps to support COVID19 response, including contact tracing apps.

For these technological solutions to benefit public health, users must be willing to adopt these apps. In free-choice democratic societies, users have the choice whether or not to install these apps.

This project is a descriptive ethics based examination of people’s preferences regarding COVID apps in order to better align COVID-related technology with human values. The findings from this work are designed to aid the development of policy and technology to address COVID19.

Research Output

• Will Americans Be Willing to Install COVID Apps? (opens in new tab) Scientific American 2020.
• The Success of Contact Tracing Doesn’t Just Depend on Privacy. (opens in new tab) Wired 2020.
• Quality issues may be the stumbling block in the race for contact tracing apps. (opens in new tab) STAT 2020.
• Citizen Science Projects Offer a Model for Coronavirus Apps. (opens in new tab) Wired 2020.
  • User perceptions of Data Donation for COVID19 (survey methodology report) (opens in new tab)
• User Concerns & Tradeoffs in Technology-Facilitated Contact Tracing. (opens in new tab) ARXIV 2020.
• How good is good enough for COVID19 apps? The influence of benefits, accuracy, and privacy on willingness to adopt. (opens in new tab) ARXIV 2020.
  • Slides (opens in new tab)

We also have virtual guest lecture content available. Contact Dr. Redmiles for access to recordings.

Contact

Project led by Elissa M. Redmiles, Ph.D. Contact Elissa.Redmiles@microsoft.com.