University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Advocating for Users’ Privacy Protections: A Case study of COVID-19 apps

Sharma,Tanusree.; Wang, Tian.; Bashir, Masooda

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/109068

Description

Title
Advocating for Users’ Privacy Protections: A Case study of COVID-19 apps
Author(s)
  • Sharma,Tanusree.
  • Wang, Tian.
  • Bashir, Masooda
Issue Date
2020-12-06
Keyword(s)
Privacy, Human-Centered Design, Trust, Security, Mobile apps
Abstract
Mobile apps are being utilized in different regions around the world for contract tracing during this COVID-19 pandemic and many of these apps require personal information to be shared. The COVID- 19 crisis has demonstrated how critical it is that we embrace virusresponse opportunities given to us through technology, but we should also keep in mind that while we use these novel technologies to combat the pandemic, we must also ensure that users’ privacy and security is contained. Therefore, in this project we assessed privacy controls that are offered in COVID-19 apps and what users are identifying to be their preferences if they were to adopt a COVID-19 app. Our results show that while the majority of the apps did not provide adequate privacy controls, users do consider these to be important factors in their decision making. In addition, we believe our preliminary findings can provide foundation for inclusive privacy features that is human-centered.
Publisher
ACM
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109068

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