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COVID-19: Disease Tracking
A short survey explored a possibility to use technology to contain highly infectious diseases through GPS data sharing. Since privacy is often the very first hurdle that many researchers need to clear in personal data collection, we probed one of the basic and yet crucial questions: what do people feel about sharing GPS data to mitigate the spread of highly infectious diseases? Through M-Turk, 484 people completed our survey. The vast majority of them (73%) felt it is necessary to share their own GPS data if they were infected with the disease. Similarly, 77% of them felt it is necessary for others to share their GPS data when they are infected, as long as their identity was protected. Thus, our results show that people are, very often, willing to share their GPS data in an effort to contain highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19, as long as their privacy is protected. Our conclusion indicates the great potential to use novel approaches to tackle with highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
