Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Sicherheit und Freiheit: Eine Analyse zur Akzeptanz der Corona-Warn-App

One of the major challenges in slowing the spread of the coronavirus is that covid-19 may be contagious before symptoms are noticeable. For this reason, the German government launched a corona tracing app (“Corona-Warn-App”). Contact tracing for COVID-19 requires identifying people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and following them up daily for 14 days from the last point of exposure. Therefore, the app warns users if they might have been in close contact with COVID-19-infected individuals. When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of COVID-19 and is an essential public health tool for controlling the virus. The German corona tracing app has been discussed in public, particularly as many people have strong privacy concerns. Furthermore, many people questioned the effectiveness of the tracing-app (e.g., as many older people are not willing or capable of using the app). The present study sheds light on current research on individual privacy concerns in light of the launch of the corona tracing app. Building on this, the author presents psychological determinants of individual privacy concerns that have been discussed in research so far. The author analyses in a qualitative study 967 reader comments to determine whether the previously identified individual determinants are relevant in the case of the Corona-Warn-App. The results confirm that three categories in particular are relevant in this context: The functional utility of the app (37% of codings), data protection, privacy, transparency and trust (26%) and the influence of the social environment (8%). Finally, implications for further research are derived.