Publications
Publications
- July 15, 2020
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
How to Get People to Actually Use Contact-Tracing Apps
By: Chiara Farronato, Marco Iansiti, Marcin Bartosiak, Stefano Denicolai, Luca Ferretti and Roberto Fontana
Abstract
The broad adoption of contact-tracing apps would greatly help combat the spread of COVID-19. But a number of barriers—especially privacy concerns—have hindered progress in many countries that can’t or won’t mandate adoption. A solution is to start with small communities where they would be instantly useful (families, religious communities, workplaces, schools, bars and restaurants, beaches, hotels, trains, airplanes), get everyone to download and use it, and then scale from there. To achieve that, the app should be designed so it is instantly valuable to anyone in the targeted community who downloads it. Managing users’ expectations is also important.
Keywords
COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Apps; Privacy; Health Pandemics; Behavior; Technology Adoption; Applications and Software
Citation
Farronato, Chiara, Marco Iansiti, Marcin Bartosiak, Stefano Denicolai, Luca Ferretti, and Roberto Fontana. "How to Get People to Actually Use Contact-Tracing Apps." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (July 15, 2020).