Is uncertainty over risk of data breaches and violation of data privacy in the NHS contract tracing app the real barrier to adoption? Or is the risk more complicated–the user perception of app reliability for them to upend their life? A person might not want to have the government on record as telling them that they were “sufficiently near” a person diagnosed with coronavirus–and also believe that the app does not provide reliable information. The person receiving the alert very well may not be infected, but the risk is that they may be compelled to self-isolate and even test with repeated alerts that may or may not be accurate.
In other words, the ‘false positive’ alert syndrome. We go back to this syndrome to understand that the real test of confidence is the perception that the algorithms will, with a good deal of confidence, screen for the number and duration of contacts of other people with symptoms, and that the complex algorithms will create a correct evaluation.
With a system that relies on about 80 percent of adoption, according to a University of Oxford team, the real factor in a successful contract tracing app may be Human Behavior– how users with smartphones perceive the app as reliable in alerting them for enough risk to self-isolate, with privacy and security lesser concerns. UKAuthority Hat tip to reader Alistair Appleby
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