People are uncomfortable with digital health tools used to control COVID-19

Most people in the United States don’t want their digital data used to control the spread of COVID-19, a new study found. More than half of the people in the study remained wary of sharing their data in different scenarios, including a smart thermometer company sharing information with public health officials, or using the Google and Apple exposure notification app to track infections.

“I was surprised a bit about the degree of skepticism when the potential benefits are so high,” says study author David Grande, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Grande and his team collected survey responses from 3,547 US adults during July 2020 about their attitudes toward the use of digital...

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