ABSTRACT
The advent of digital technologies used as a mechanism to deal with the Covid-19 global pandemic, has raised serious concerns around privacy and security issues. Despite these concerns and the potential risk of data misuse, including third party use, countries around the world have pushed the use and proliferation of contact-tracing applications. However, the success of these contact-tracing applications relies on their adoption and use. A well known phenomenon referred to as privacy paradox is defined as the discrepancy between the expressed privacy concern and the actual behaviour of users when it comes to protect their privacy. In this context, this paper presents a study investigating the privacy paradox in the context of a global pandemic. A national survey has been conducted and the data is analysed to examine people's privacy risk perception. The results show inconsistencies between people's privacy concerns and their actual behaviour that is reflected in their attitude shift of sharing their mobile data during a global pandemic. The study also compiles a list of recommendations for policymakers. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The current Covid-19 global pandemic led to a proliferation of contact-tracing applications meant to help control and suppress the spread of the virus. However, the success of these contact-tracing apps relies on obtaining access to sensitive data stored on citizen's mobile devices. The approaches taken are different around the world. While the countries with a strong democratic and civil liberty ethos are encouraging voluntary adoption of contact-tracing apps by their citizens, other countries opted for forced mass surveillance methods that limit individual freedoms. As a result, the attempt to fight the global pandemic is actually testing people's attitudes towards privacy and government surveillance. In this context, this research introduces a pilot study examining people's privacy concerns in a time of Covid-19. The results show that people are willing to share their personal data in the interest of controlling the spread of the virus and save lives. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
We introduce a study examining people's privacy concerns during COVID-19 and reflect on people's willingness to share their personal data in the interest of controlling the spread of the virus and saving lives.
ABSTRACT
Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide with major concerns around privacy. COVID Tracker app used in the Republic of Ireland was praised in general for the way it addressed privacy and was used as baseline for other contact tracing apps worldwide. The success of the app is dependent on the general public uptake, hence their voice and attitude is the one that really matters. This paper focuses on developing a survey and the methods aiming to examine the attitudes toward privacy during COVID-19 of the general public in the Republic of Ireland and their impact on the uptake of the COVID tracker app. Various privacy models are used and health belief model as well in this purpose. A pilot study with 286 participants show a change in attitude towards privacy during COVID-19 pandemic, with more people willing to share their data in the interest of saving lives. However, privacy attitudes are shown to have impacted the adoption of the app in Ireland. © 2021 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Contact tracing apps used in tracing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 have sparked discussions and controversies worldwide. The major concerns in relation to these apps are around privacy. Ireland was in general praised for the design of its COVID tracker app, and the transparency through which privacy issues were addressed. However, the "voice"of the Irish public was not really heard or analysed. This study aimed to analyse the Irish public sentiment towards privacy and COVID tracker app. For this purpose we have conducted sentiment analysis on Twitter data collected from public Twitter accounts from Republic of Ireland. We collected COVID-19 related tweets generated in Ireland over a period of time from January 1, 2020 up to December 31, 2020 in order to perform sentiment analysis on this data set. Moreover, the study performed sentiment analysis on the feedback received from a national survey on privacy conducted in Republic of Ireland. The findings of the study reveal a significant criticism towards the app that relate to privacy concerns, but other aspects of the app as well. The findings also reveal some positive attitude towards the fight against COVID-19, but these are not necessarily related to the technological solutions employed for this purpose. The findings of the study contributed to the formulation of useful recommendations communicated to the relevant Irish actors. © 2021 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
AI in My Life' project will engage 500 Dublin teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds in a 15-week (20-hour) co-created, interactive workshop series encouraging them to reflect on their experiences in a world shaped by Artificial Intelligence (AI), personal data processing and digital transformation. Students will be empowered to evaluate the ethical and privacy implications of AI in their lives, to protect their digital privacy and to activate STEM careers and university awareness. It extends the ĝ€DCU TY' programme for innovative educational opportunities for Transition Year students from underrepresented communities in higher education. Privacy and cybersecurity researchers and public engagement professionals from the SFI Centres ADAPT1 and Lero2 will join experts from the Future of Privacy Forum3 and the INTEGRITY H20204 project to deliver the programme to the DCU Access5 22-school network. DCU Access has a mission of creating equality of access to third-level education for students from groups currently underrepresented in higher education. Each partner brings proven training activities in AI, ethics and privacy. A novel blending of material into a youth-driven narrative will be the subject of initial co-creation workshops and supported by pilot material delivery by undergraduate DCU Student Ambassadors. Train-The-Trainer workshops and a toolkit for teachers will enable delivery. The material will use a blended approach (in person and online) for delivery during COVID-19. It will also enable wider use of the material developed. An external study of programme effectiveness will report on participants': enhanced understanding of AI and its impact, improved data literacy skills in terms of their understanding of data privacy and security, empowerment to protect privacy, growth in confidence in participating in public discourse about STEM, increased propensity to consider STEM subjects at all levels, and greater capacity of teachers to facilitate STEM interventions. This paper introduces the project, presents more details about co-creation workshops that is a particular step in the proposed methodology and reports some preliminary results. © 2021 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
In this demonstration we present the Access Risk Knowledge (ARK) Platform-a socio-Technical risk governance system. Through the ARK Virus Project, the ARK Platform has been extended for risk management of personal protective equipment (PPE) in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. ARK demonstrates the benefits of a Semantic Web approach for supporting both the integration and classification of qualitative and quantitative PPE risk data, across multiple healthcare organisations, in order to generate a unique unified evidence base of risk. This evidence base could be used to inform decision making processes regarding PPE use. © 2021 ACM.
ABSTRACT
To determine whether Seraph-100 (Exthera Medical Corporation, Martinez, CA) treatment provides clinical benefit for severe coronavirus disease 2019 cases that require mechanical ventilation and vasopressor support. DATA SOURCES: The first two patients in the United States treated with the novel Seraph-100 device. These cases were reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration prior to granting an emergency use authorization for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019. STUDY SELECTION: Case series. DATA EXTRACTION: Vasopressor dose, mean arterial pressure, temperature, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and other biomarker levels were documented both before and after Seraph-100 treatments. DATA SYNTHESIS: Vasopressor dose, temperature, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein levels declined after Seraph-100 treatments. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viremia was confirmed in the one patient tested and cleared by the completion of treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Seraph-100 use may improve hemodynamic stability in coronavirus disease 2019 cases requiring mechanical ventilation and vasopressor support. These findings warrant future study of a larger cohort with the addition of mortality and total hospital day outcomes.