Table 2.
Top bigrams (N=3995) of respondents’ concerns with TraceTogether.
| Bigram | Occurrence, n (%) | Example of response statement | Sentiment score of example statement | |
| TraceTogether app inconvenience | ||||
|
|
Battery drainage | 489 (12.24) | Bluetooth needs to be activated, which causes battery drainage and slows down the app. [Male, 57 years, September 2020] | –0.25 |
|
|
Technical glitch | 83 (2.08) | Technical glitch. It malfunctions on my phone all the time and does not seem to capture any interactions that I made with the people around me. That is why I stopped utilizing it. [Female, 41 years, August 2020] | –1.5 |
|
|
Phone battery | 77 (1.93) | Inconvenient. If [my] phone battery [goes] flat, it [TraceTogether] would not work anymore. [Female, 57 years, November 2020] | –0.25 |
|
|
User unfriendly | 22 (0.55) | App is user unfriendly. [Female, 49 years, October 2020] | –0.5 |
|
|
Bluetooth battery | 22 (0.55) | Bluetooth battery drainage. [Respondents aged 21-71 years, both sexes, all months] | –0.25 |
|
|
Memory space | 10 (0.25) | Lack of phone memory storage space. [Female, 27 years, July 2020] | –0.75 |
|
|
Phone memory | 9 (0.23) | Lack of phone memory storage space. [Female, 27 years, July 2020] | –0.75 |
|
|
Language barrier | 5 (0.13) | Language barrier. [The] Interface is in English. The first page should especially be in mandarin as 70% of the population is Chinese and some may not understand [English]. [Male, 68 years, July 2020] | –0.5 |
| TraceTogether app and token data security | ||||
|
|
Privacy violation | 386 (9.66) | Data privacy violation. Even though they [the authorities] say they collect minimal data, you would not know if they changed it down the road since nobody reads the terms and conditions. [Male, 46 years, November 2020] | –0.5 |
|
|
Data privacy | 238 (5.96) | Location data privacy violation. You do not want others to know some places you go to. [Female, 68 years, January 2021] | –0.5 |
|
|
Dislike location | 139 (3.48) | Linked with location tracking and location tracing | —a |
|
|
Location tracking | 96 (2.40) | Dislike location tracking. The app will track my location like an ankle collar on criminals. [Male, 54 years, December 2020] | –1.5 |
|
|
Location tracing | 53 (1.33) | Dislike location tracing. Mistrust the government on data safety. [Female, 57 years, November 2020] | –1.2 |
|
|
Data insecurity | 81 (2.03) | Lack of transparency on data usage, concerned about data insecurity. [Male, 29 years, July 2020] | –2.1 |
|
|
Data leak | 66 (1.65) | Afraid of [data] being hacked and having data leak. [Male, 27 years, September 2020] | –2.1 |
|
|
Data unprotected | 9 (0.23) | Data [are] unprotected. Dislike having to input IC [identification] number. Phone number should suffice. [Male, 68 years, September 2020] | –1.8 |
| TraceTogether app and token data misuse | ||||
|
|
PDPAb violation | 152 (3.80) | PDPA violation. Dislike that personal details have to be entered before you can utilize it. [Female, 42 years, December 2020] | –1.5 |
|
|
Data breach | 148 (3.70) | Who is responsible if there is a data breach and how is the breach being handled? [Female, 50 years, July 2020] | –0.5 |
|
|
Privacy invasion | 41 (1.03) | Privacy invasion. A sense that you are being stalked. [Male, 67 years, July 2020] | –1.4 |
|
|
Jeopardize bank details | 17 (0.43) | Jeopardize bank and credit card details. [Respondents aged 26-67 years, both sexes, September 2020-February 2021] | –0.5 |
|
|
Credit card details | 16 (0.40) | Jeopardize bank and credit card details. [Respondents aged 26-67 years, both sexes, September 2020-February 2021] | –0.5 |
|
|
Personal information | 18 (0.45) | Privacy violation as there may be a personal information leak. [Female, 47 years, January 2021] | –0.85 |
|
|
Information leak | 12 (0.30) | Privacy violation as there may be a personal information leak. [Female, 47 years, January 2021] | –0.85 |
|
| ||||
|
| ||||
| TraceTogether app and token efficiency and efficacy of contact tracing | ||||
|
|
Contact tracing | 58 (1.45) | Even with contact tracing we are unable to immediately know who is infected or if I met them, so it is inefficient. [Female, 40 years, February 2021] | –1.35 |
|
|
TraceTogether inaccurate | 6 (0.15) | TraceTogether [is] inaccurate. It is pointless if I utilize and others do not. [Male, 50 years, October 2020] | –1.5 |
|
|
Delayed notification | 6 (0.15) | The app notified me of possible exposure on the 14th, but I received delayed notification only on the 30th. [Male, 30 years, December 2020] | –0.15 |
| TraceTogether token design | ||||
|
|
Size cumbersome | 35 (0.88) | The token is badly designed, has a limited lifespan and its large size [is] cumbersome. [Male, 74 years, December 2020] | –2 |
|
|
Token size | 12 (0.30) | Cumbersome token size and it is unaccepted at some stores. [Female, 51 years, December 2020] | –0.5 |
aNot applicable.
bPDPA: Personal Data Protection Act.