Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland

Guodong Xie; Pintu Lohar; Claudia Florea; Malika Bendechache; Ramona Trestian; Rob Brennan; Regina Connolly; Irina Tal

doi:10.1145/3465481.3470096

Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland

Guodong Xie
, Pintu Lohar
, Claudia Florea
, Malika Bendechache
, Ramona Trestian
, Rob Brennan
, Regina Connolly
, Irina Tal

Dublin City University
Middlesex University

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Publication/Proceeding › Conference Publication › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide with major concerns around privacy. COVID Tracker app used in the Republic of Ireland was praised in general for the way it addressed privacy and was used as baseline for other contact tracing apps worldwide. The success of the app is dependent on the general public uptake, hence their voice and attitude is the one that really matters. This paper focuses on developing a survey and the methods aiming to examine the attitudes toward privacy during COVID-19 of the general public in the Republic of Ireland and their impact on the uptake of the COVID tracker app. Various privacy models are used and health belief model as well in this purpose. A pilot study with 286 participants show a change in attitude towards privacy during COVID-19 pandemic, with more people willing to share their data in the interest of saving lives. However, privacy attitudes are shown to have impacted the adoption of the app in Ireland.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450390514
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3465481.3470096
Publication status	Published - 17 Aug 2021
Externally published	Yes
Event	16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021 - Virtual, Online, Austria Duration: 17 Aug 2021 → 20 Aug 2021

Publication series

Name	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference	16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021
Country/Territory	Austria
City	Virtual, Online
Period	17/08/21 → 20/08/21

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

COVID-19
health belief model
Privacy
privacy segmentation index
tracker app

Access to Document

10.1145/3465481.3470096

Cite this

Xie, G., Lohar, P., Florea, C., Bendechache, M., Trestian, R., Brennan, R., Connolly, R., & Tal, I. (2021). Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland. In 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021 Article 3470096 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3465481.3470096

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title = "Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland",

abstract = "Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide with major concerns around privacy. COVID Tracker app used in the Republic of Ireland was praised in general for the way it addressed privacy and was used as baseline for other contact tracing apps worldwide. The success of the app is dependent on the general public uptake, hence their voice and attitude is the one that really matters. This paper focuses on developing a survey and the methods aiming to examine the attitudes toward privacy during COVID-19 of the general public in the Republic of Ireland and their impact on the uptake of the COVID tracker app. Various privacy models are used and health belief model as well in this purpose. A pilot study with 286 participants show a change in attitude towards privacy during COVID-19 pandemic, with more people willing to share their data in the interest of saving lives. However, privacy attitudes are shown to have impacted the adoption of the app in Ireland.",

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author = "Guodong Xie and Pintu Lohar and Claudia Florea and Malika Bendechache and Ramona Trestian and Rob Brennan and Regina Connolly and Irina Tal",

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Xie, G, Lohar, P, Florea, C, Bendechache, M, Trestian, R, Brennan, R, Connolly, R & Tal, I 2021, Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland. in 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021., 3470096, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Association for Computing Machinery, 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021, Virtual, Online, Austria, 17/08/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3465481.3470096

Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland. / Xie, Guodong; Lohar, Pintu; Florea, Claudia et al.
16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, 2021. 3470096 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Publication/Proceeding › Conference Publication › peer-review

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T2 - 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2021

AU - Xie, Guodong

AU - Lohar, Pintu

AU - Florea, Claudia

AU - Bendechache, Malika

AU - Trestian, Ramona

AU - Brennan, Rob

AU - Connolly, Regina

AU - Tal, Irina

PY - 2021/8/17

Y1 - 2021/8/17

N2 - Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide with major concerns around privacy. COVID Tracker app used in the Republic of Ireland was praised in general for the way it addressed privacy and was used as baseline for other contact tracing apps worldwide. The success of the app is dependent on the general public uptake, hence their voice and attitude is the one that really matters. This paper focuses on developing a survey and the methods aiming to examine the attitudes toward privacy during COVID-19 of the general public in the Republic of Ireland and their impact on the uptake of the COVID tracker app. Various privacy models are used and health belief model as well in this purpose. A pilot study with 286 participants show a change in attitude towards privacy during COVID-19 pandemic, with more people willing to share their data in the interest of saving lives. However, privacy attitudes are shown to have impacted the adoption of the app in Ireland.

AB - Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide with major concerns around privacy. COVID Tracker app used in the Republic of Ireland was praised in general for the way it addressed privacy and was used as baseline for other contact tracing apps worldwide. The success of the app is dependent on the general public uptake, hence their voice and attitude is the one that really matters. This paper focuses on developing a survey and the methods aiming to examine the attitudes toward privacy during COVID-19 of the general public in the Republic of Ireland and their impact on the uptake of the COVID tracker app. Various privacy models are used and health belief model as well in this purpose. A pilot study with 286 participants show a change in attitude towards privacy during COVID-19 pandemic, with more people willing to share their data in the interest of saving lives. However, privacy attitudes are shown to have impacted the adoption of the app in Ireland.

KW - COVID-19

KW - health belief model

KW - Privacy

KW - privacy segmentation index

KW - tracker app

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ER -

Privacy in Times of COVID-19: A Pilot Study in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this