Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications
Background On January 8, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially announced a new virus in Wuhan, China. The first novel coronavirus (COVID-19) case was discovered on December 1, 2019, implying that the disease was spreading quietly and quickly in the community before reaching...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2022-01-01
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| Series: | PeerJ Computer Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/cs-826.pdf |
| _version_ | 1819283112197095424 |
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| author | Amany Alshawi Muna Al-Razgan Fatima H. AlKallas Raghad Abdullah Bin Suhaim Reem Al-Tamimi Norah Alharbi Sarah Omar AlSaif |
| author_facet | Amany Alshawi Muna Al-Razgan Fatima H. AlKallas Raghad Abdullah Bin Suhaim Reem Al-Tamimi Norah Alharbi Sarah Omar AlSaif |
| author_sort | Amany Alshawi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background On January 8, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially announced a new virus in Wuhan, China. The first novel coronavirus (COVID-19) case was discovered on December 1, 2019, implying that the disease was spreading quietly and quickly in the community before reaching the rest of the world. To deal with the virus’ wide spread, countries have deployed contact tracing mobile applications to control viral transmission. Such applications collect users’ information and inform them if they were in contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19. However, these applications might have affected human rights by breaching users’ privacy. Methodology This systematic literature review followed a comprehensive methodology to highlight current research discussing such privacy issues. First, it used a search strategy to obtain 808 relevant papers published in 2020 from well-established digital libraries. Second, inclusion/exclusion criteria and the snowballing technique were applied to produce more comprehensive results. Finally, by the application of a quality assessment procedure, 40 studies were chosen. Results This review highlights privacy issues, discusses centralized and decentralized models and the different technologies affecting users’ privacy, and identifies solutions to improve data privacy from three perspectives: public, law, and health considerations. Conclusions Governments need to address the privacy issues related to contact tracing apps. This can be done through enforcing special policies to guarantee users privacy. Additionally, it is important to be transparent and let users know what data is being collected and how it is being used. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T01:26:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-845cc53cef6a4883b1d3e8ca35088d72 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2376-5992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T01:26:18Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ Computer Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-845cc53cef6a4883b1d3e8ca35088d722022-12-21T17:22:29ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ Computer Science2376-59922022-01-017e82610.7717/peerj-cs.826Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applicationsAmany Alshawi0Muna Al-Razgan1Fatima H. AlKallas2Raghad Abdullah Bin Suhaim3Reem Al-Tamimi4Norah Alharbi5Sarah Omar AlSaif6King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (KSU), Riyad, Saudi ArabiaBackground On January 8, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially announced a new virus in Wuhan, China. The first novel coronavirus (COVID-19) case was discovered on December 1, 2019, implying that the disease was spreading quietly and quickly in the community before reaching the rest of the world. To deal with the virus’ wide spread, countries have deployed contact tracing mobile applications to control viral transmission. Such applications collect users’ information and inform them if they were in contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19. However, these applications might have affected human rights by breaching users’ privacy. Methodology This systematic literature review followed a comprehensive methodology to highlight current research discussing such privacy issues. First, it used a search strategy to obtain 808 relevant papers published in 2020 from well-established digital libraries. Second, inclusion/exclusion criteria and the snowballing technique were applied to produce more comprehensive results. Finally, by the application of a quality assessment procedure, 40 studies were chosen. Results This review highlights privacy issues, discusses centralized and decentralized models and the different technologies affecting users’ privacy, and identifies solutions to improve data privacy from three perspectives: public, law, and health considerations. Conclusions Governments need to address the privacy issues related to contact tracing apps. This can be done through enforcing special policies to guarantee users privacy. Additionally, it is important to be transparent and let users know what data is being collected and how it is being used.https://peerj.com/articles/cs-826.pdfPrivacyCOVID-19Mobile applicationContact tracingLocation privacyPrivacy protection |
| spellingShingle | Amany Alshawi Muna Al-Razgan Fatima H. AlKallas Raghad Abdullah Bin Suhaim Reem Al-Tamimi Norah Alharbi Sarah Omar AlSaif Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications PeerJ Computer Science Privacy COVID-19 Mobile application Contact tracing Location privacy Privacy protection |
| title | Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications |
| title_full | Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications |
| title_fullStr | Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications |
| title_short | Data privacy during pandemics: a systematic literature review of COVID-19 smartphone applications |
| title_sort | data privacy during pandemics a systematic literature review of covid 19 smartphone applications |
| topic | Privacy COVID-19 Mobile application Contact tracing Location privacy Privacy protection |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/cs-826.pdf |
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