Beyond the Pandemic and Privacy Concerns: Perceived Benefit and Expected Use of Pandemic-Tracking Apps in India

Pandemic-tracking apps could be a viable mitigation technique for future pandemics worldwide, although limited adoption in many places has weakened their efficacy. It is therefore important to understand how perceptions of such apps are formed in different regions, which may contribute to adoption. We conducted a replication of prior work in the United States with participants from India (n = 416) between November 9, 2020 and January 3, 2021. We identified factors that predict perceptions of pandemic-tracking apps: social orientation, prior use of health-related technology, and demographics. We found that privacy concerns did not predict perceptions, suggesting that privacy may not be a suitable singular lens through which to study the perception of, and expectation to use, pandemic-tracking apps in India. We make several recommendations for future pandemic-preparedness campaigns and identify the need to continue the trend toward contextualizing privacy-centered research with privacy-adjacent individual factors across multiple regions.