Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid development of eHealth applications around the globe. Despite high investments by governments, adoption and usage rates are lower than expected. This paper investigates which quality criteria and success factors are crucial for a contact-tracing app. This involved an in-depth literature review of existing quality frameworks and surveys of COVID-19 apps. In addition, studies from Switzerland and Germany were analyzed and compared. We concluded that no quality framework or seal is sufficiently established to apply as a state-of-the-art framework. The biggest factors holding back usage and adoption rates are security and privacy concerns, as well as the lack of perceived benefits among the population. This initiates that greater trust in the government leads to higher adoption. Governments should start to emphasize the benefits of the apps for the user. Additionally, concerns about security and privacy should be addressed, for example by making the source code public.