Data Privacy, Regulations and Legal Issues on COVID-19 Tracking Apps: A Scoping Review

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 Jan 14:289:388-391. doi: 10.3233/SHTI210940.

Abstract

It cannot be deniable that smartphone apps have grown exponentially and are playing a crucial role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries. This paper aims to investigate data privacy, regulations and legal issues on COVID-19 tracking apps. A literature search will be followed the PRISMA guidelines extension for a scoping review. The search will be conducted on PubMed and Google Scholar. A total of 38 articles from 7,626 articles were reviewed. Mostly articles report on data privacy. Not many articles report on regulations and legal issues. However, there are many challenges on COVID-19 applications such as security risks, privacy issues, political, ethical, and legal risks, and standardization issues.

Keywords: Covid19 Apps; Global Health; Medical Informatics; Mobile Application; data privacy; legal issues COVID-19.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Mobile Applications*
  • Pandemics
  • Privacy
  • SARS-CoV-2