Security News > 2020 > May > Data researchers at odds: Will Americans opt in or out of COVID-19 contact tracing apps?
Results from separate studies by Checkmarx and ExpressVPN reveal consumers won't easily share their personal information with tracing apps due to concern for misuse.
The VPN provider ExpressVPN and software security company Checkmarx queried 1,200 and 1,500 consumers, respectively, to find out what Americans think about digital contact-tracing systems having access to their health information.
"However, all of the news coverage about contact tracing has forced a lot of people to think about the associated privacy concerns with applications and/or the cell phone vendors and technology providers themselves. As new software use cases with lesser-understood implications continue to emerge, as we're seeing with contact tracing, consumers' security and privacy concerns will continue to rise simultaneously."
88% are concerned contact tracing may put their personal information in the hands of third parties, such as marketers and advertisers.
Actually seeing the value of automating contact tracing plus having a clear understanding of what data is being captured, where it goes, and how they can potentially get 'their' data back, can help alleviate some concerns.