Poster: Centralized vs. Decentralized Contact Tracing: Do GDP and Democracy Index Influence Privacy Choices?

Abstract

Contagious diseases such as COVID-19 spread rapidly, forcing governments and policymakers to employ corrective measures. Contact tracing is one of the critical tools to identify whether individuals came into contact with infected persons. Many countries, including Australia, Singapore, and India, have released contact tracing apps to reduce the community spread. Such apps follow either a centralized or decentralized architecture; the former lets government agencies store and manage the user's data without privacy support, while the latter allows the user more control over their information, providing privacy. We analyze how the GDP and the democracy index influence the adoption of contact tracing applications. Our study analyzes COVID-19 contact tracing projects announced between February 2020 and August 2020 from 63 countries. The data indicates that countries with high GDP and democracy index tend to opt for decentralized architectures, while autocratic and low GDP countries tend to adopt centralized architectures.