Contact Tracing Apps for COVID-19: Access Permission and User Adoption

Abstract

Contact tracing apps are powerful software tools that can help to control the spread of COVID-19. In this article, we evaluated 53 COVID-19 contact tracing apps found on the Google Play Store in terms of their usage, rating, access permission, and user privacy. For each app we identified the country of origin, number of downloads, and access permissions to further understand other attributes and ratings of these apps. Our results showed that contact tracing apps had low overall ratings and nearly 40% of them were requesting 'dangerous access permission' including access to storage, media files, and camera permissions. We discovered that user adoption rates were inversely correlated to access permission requirements. To the best of our knowledge, this article summarizes the most extensive collection of contact tracing apps for COVID-19. We recommend that future contact tracing apps be more transparent in permission requirements and justify permission requests to preserve the app users' privacy.