Digital Contact Tracing – An Examination of Uptake in UK and Germany

Abstract

At the start of the pandemic, our research on community disquiet surrounding tracking and tracing surveillance used as COVID-19 control led us to our conclusion that a failure to engage with the public in the development and execution of the technology had a negative influence on the way it has been received. In this paper, we sought to test our view: that damaged or absent trust, relating to the technology or its sponsors (particularly governments), was key in understanding the way community disquiet constrained efficacy of the control policy. However, initial findings have demonstrated instances where trust relationships were damaged this did not always or consistently appear to deter significant rates of downloads. Conversely, initial public engagement and approval of the technology likewise did not always or consistently result in requisite uptake rates being met, for the technology to work as planned. Through our survey of the UK and German app, how trust is created and maintained is neither simple not inevitable. Externalities beyond community engagement effected trust in various ways depending on the wider socio-political control environment prevailing. What can be said of trust and engagement is that their absence, along with other influences of public permission and approval, can have an impact on how control initiatives are received by data subjects. Therefore if trust and engagement are not magic bullets for efficacy, their absence will produce disquiet and this can impact on the sustainability of pandemic control policy.

Keywords: COVID-19, Contact Tracing Applications, Trust, Disquiet, Digital Contact Tracing