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  • July 15, 2020
  • Article
  • 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
  • Format:Electronic
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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).
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About The Authors

Chiara Farronato

Technology and Operations Management
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Marco Iansiti

Technology and Operations Management
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