Perception and Use of COVID Contact Tracing Mobile Applications in New York State (NYS)

ABSTRACT

The study explores the use of COVID‐19 related apps for contact tracing deployed in New York State (NYS). The project seeks to understand potential differences in perception, adoption, or privacy concerns among racial and ethnic populations and across age groups. Using the Antecedent‐Privacy Concerns‐Outcomes (APCO) framework and the perceived usefulness construct, this study explores factors influencing the individual level adoption of these apps. Data collected from 120 Amazon Mechanical Turkers located in NYS was analyzed. The results indicate that race and gender are important factors to consider in expanding the Antecedent‐Privacy Concerns‐Outcomes (APCO) framework. Specifically, race impacted the perception of the seriousness of the pandemic, with Asians and Black being serious about the pandemic. Age played a role in privacy and security concerns. The youngest group of respondents, aged 18–24, did not have many privacy and security concerns about mobile apps. These results provided empirical results and evidence that can contribute to the expansion of the APCO model and help further the model's development.

INTRODUCTION

Many countries resorted to and mandated contact tracing apps to help mitigate the spread of COVID‐19. Despite the varying public policy efforts, these tracking apps have not been fully effective due to public concerns over data privacy (Russo et al., 2021). Major concerns included questions about the usefulness of the apps and the privacy of the individual data, which can affect mass acceptance (Akinbi, Forshaw, & Blinkhorn 2021). Contact tracing has been employed in extraordinary ways to mitigate the transmission of infectious diseases (Fairchild et al., 2020; Wacksman, 2021). Throughout the pandemic, contact tracing emerged as a fundamental mitigation strategy to minimize the spread of COVID‐19. A key challenge to the effective use of such apps relates to social policies that determine an individual's autonomy to participate. Cultural differences and social norms often govern citizens' choice to adopt and use these apps. The New York public health officials and healthcare providers were hit fast, with the most significant spike in cases and subsequent deaths between late March through early May 2020 (Rothfeld et al., 2020; New York Times, 2020). This led to a public health initiative responding to the COVID‐19 public health emergency. Test & Trace Corps (2022) began on June 1, 2020, as a coordinated effort of doctors, public health professionals, and community advocates to contain the transmission of COVID‐19 in NYC (NYChealthandhospitals.org). The COVID Alert NY mobile application was launched by New York State in 2021 and worked alongside the Exposure Notification (launched by Google and Apple). The important societal issues resulting from this study on the increased use of contact tracing devices and other technologies include the perceived usefulness of mobile apps for COVID‐19 mitigation and privacy and security concerns. Furthermore, this study focuses on racial and ethnic minority population groups who may be more reluctant to adopt and, therefore, not participate in mobile application mitigation strategies.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Using the Antecedent‐Privacy Concerns‐Outcomes (APCO) framework (Figure 1) (Polites & Karahanna, 2013) and the perceived usefulness construct, this study explores what factors influence the individual level adoption of these apps. Also, we investigate what factors influence the individual level privacy of COVID‐19 mobile applications by including a more comprehensive set of demographic considerations such as race/ethnicity, income, age, education, and political affiliations. Additionally, because the technology is related to the pandemic, we included questions about trust and awareness regarding the pandemic and contact tracing. The following research questions (RQs) were used to examine these factors: RQ1: How does the perceived usefulness of mobile apps for COVID‐19 contact tracing differ by race and age? RQ2: How do privacy and security concerns influence the adoption of COVID‐19‐related mobile apps? Are there differences by race and age?

Figure 1.

The Antecedent‐Privacy Concerns‐Outcomes (APCO) framework (Polites & Karahanna, 2013)

METHODOLOGY

A survey was administered via Amazon Mechanical Turk to explore the perceived usefulness perceptions of NYS mobile apps for COVID‐19 and privacy and security concerns of the technologies used. We first recruited 120 Turkers located in New York State to answer this survey. In the survey, Turkers were shown pictures of the mobile apps (COVID Alert NY and Exposure Notification) and then asked a series of questions regarding the apps.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

There was an equal distribution of male and female respondents, with one person identifying as transmasculine and one who preferred not to identify their gender. Nearly 73% of the respondents self‐identified as White, 12.5% Asian, 11% African American or Black, 6% other. Additionally, 15% of respondents also identified as Hispanic or Latino, where all participants were asked about their race and their Hispanic ethnicity. Most of the respondents were between the ages of 25 and 44 (68%). Most respondents had at least a bachelor's degree (74%). Over half of the respondents supported the democratic party in handling COVID (52%), 20% supported the republican party in handling the pandemic, and 18% did not support any party. Others did not know in terms of political identity; half of them identified as democratic, nearly a quarter of respondents identified as independent, and 20% of them identified as republican. A small number of respondents identified as something else politically, and others did not know their political identity. Among 119 respondents who reported their annual income from the last 12 months, a bit over 10% responded that their income was less than $25,000.

Results show that the seriousness in which the pandemic was perceived varied by race, with Asian and Black respondents indicate more serious perception. Individual perceptions about the pandemic were asked to establish a baseline related to risk perception that may relate to overall trust and privacy concerns regarding technologies used primarily to mitigate the pandemic. Other questions were asked to directly identify how individuals perceive contact tracing and contact tracing mobile applications. The perceived helpfulness of contact tracing to minimize the risk from COVID and the perceived usefulness of contact tracing mobile applications are closely aligned by race. While the perceived helpfulness ranged from neutral to helpful, respondents saw the most benefits from using the contact tracing applications hovered mostly around neutral for each race and across different activities, such as work, education, and recreation. It may relate to the fact that the COVID‐19 outbreak was first in Wuhan, China, and that Black/African American populations in the US have been disproportionately affected (in terms of infection and mortality) since the first outbreak.

With respect to privacy concerns, Asian respondents indicate less privacy concerns with use of the contact tracing mobile application, where Black respondents indicated more privacy concerns with the mobile app. Populations outside of Asian, Black or White, indicate privacy concerns causing them to change the permissions of the apps they download to their mobile devices. The responses show more significant variation based on age. The youngest age group, 18 to 24, showed the least willingness to use the contact tracing mobile app, even if it was mandatory to use. Concern about privacy and security was more likely to prevent respondents aged 25–44 from using contact tracing apps.

CONCLUSION

This study examined the perceived usefulness of the NY contact tracing apps and related privacy concerns of users. Our preliminary results indicate that race and age impacted the perception of mobile apps and the privacy and security concerns of users. Regarding privacy concerns, race and age may play a role. Asian respondents indicate more minor privacy concerns with the contact tracing mobile application than those Black respondents. Populations outside of Asian, Black, or White claimed that they changed the permission of mobile apps because of privacy concerns. In terms of age, the youngest age group (18–24‐year‐old) should be paid special attention since they are more likely to change permissions of the apps, and their privacy perceptions of mobile apps would prevent their use of a mobile app.