Ethical Concerns of COVID-19 Contact Tracing: A Narrative Review

Zhixin Shi, Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, Abhinav Choudhry, Mengyi Wei, Xiang Chen, Bohui Shen

Abstract: Contact tracing has been widely adopted during COVID-19 to curb the spread of infection. Despite its effectiveness, ethical issues abound and many people are not willing to use it. Toward understanding the ethical issues arising from contact tracing and informing future epidemic intervention, we conducted a narrative review of 26 papers addressing ethical concerns of COVID contact tracing (N = 26). The issues identified by researchers included data leakage, surveillance, lack of accessibility, etc., and proposed solutions included data minimization, transparency, voluntary and temporary use, adhering to data protection standards, designing affordable wearable devices, etc. Based on the findings, we propose research and design implications to make future epidemic contact tracing effective and ethical at the same time.