A three-dimensional framework of perceiving privacy: A cross-national survey on contact tracing technology and privacy concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic

During COVID-19, digital contact tracing has been adopted as an efficient anti-pandemic measure worldwide, evoking global privacy concerns. Based on a survey of six jurisdictions with 5312 representative samples from Asian and Western societies in June 2021, this study investigates factors shaping an individual's willingness to disclose privacy to curb the pandemic. We propose a three-dimensional framework to analyze how individuals understand privacy in decision-making: privacy as a utilitarian tool, privacy as a value-driven right, and privacy as a contextualized strategy. The findings first suggest a strong utilitarian mindset: the perceived benefit of using contact tracing apps to curb the pandemic enhanced individuals' willingness to render their privacy, and the perceived risk of leakage of personal data weakened such willingness. Such patterns were consistent across societies. Second, the data reveal a positive association between collectivism and intention of privacy disclosure but find no significant moderation effects between the cultural and utilitarian concerns. In addition, the study finds that the perceived threat of the pandemic enhances people's willingness to disclose privacy on the one hand and suppresses the impacts of the utilitarian calculus and value-oriented privacy perception, suggesting crisis psychology on privacy concerns. Our study offers a nuanced understanding of privacy during the crisis and invites further discussion on adopting information communication technology for governance in the post-COVID world.