A Missed Opportunity? Making Sense of the Low Adoption Rate of COVID Alert, Canada’s Contact-Tracing Application

Abstract

Background: This study reflects on the low adoption rate of COVID Alert, the Canadian contact-tracing application, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis: Using data from two representative surveys conducted in Canada in 2020, this article examines how the application’s attributes and citizens’ attitudes on the sanitary crisis and on technology may have influenced the low adoption rate of COVID Alert. Conclusions and implications: The results suggest that the application design was socially acceptable, that it was seen as useful, and that it was not perceived as risky or hard to use. Contrasting this evidence with the unpopularity of COVID Alert leads to the suggestion that the barrier to greater uptake may have partly come from the inability of its developers to effectively promote the application.