@inproceedings{8c64def50e0940e1ba1d5cbb67fbdb27,
title = "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.",
keywords = "COVID-19, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Mobile Apps, Privacy",
author = "Ali, {Amal Awadalla} and Elfadl, {Asma Hamid} and Abujazar, {Maha Fawzy} and Sarah Aziz and Alaa Abd-Alrazaq and Zubair Shah and Samir Brahim and Belhaouari and Mowafa Househ and Tanvir Alam",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 IEEE.; 7th IEEE International Conference on Behavioural and Social Computing, BESC 2020 ; Conference date: 05-11-2020 Through 07-11-2020",
year = "2020",
month = nov,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1109/BESC51023.2020.9348327",
language = "English",
series = "Proceedings of 2020 7th IEEE International Conference on Behavioural and Social Computing, BESC 2020",
publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",
booktitle = "Proceedings of 2020 7th IEEE International Conference on Behavioural and Social Computing, BESC 2020",
address = "United States",
}