Impact of Privacy Messaging on COVID-19 Exposure Notification App Downloads: Evidence From a Randomized Experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Digital contact-tracing smartphone apps have the potential to slow the spread of disease but are not widely used. We tested whether messages describing how a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing app protects users' privacy led to increased or decreased intentions to download the app by either calming privacy concerns or increasing their saliency.

Design

Randomized controlled trial.

Setting/participants

We recruited adult smartphone owners in the U.S. (oversampled for younger adults aged 18-34 years) in November 2020 through an online panel.

Intervention

Survey software randomly assigned 860 participants to 1 of 2 parallel messaging conditions (n=430 privacy assured, n=430 no privacy described).

Main outcome measures

4-point scale o

SUBMITTER: Gibson LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9771837 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature