Poll shows nearly 6 out of 10 Americans either don’t have a smartphone or don’t trust the tech giants behind the app.
From “Most Americans are not willing or able to use an app tracking coronavirus infections. That’s a problem for Big Tech’s plan to slow the pandemic” in Wednesday’s Washington Post:
The effort faces several major barriers, including that approximately 1 in 6 Americans do not have smartphones, which would be necessary for running any apps produced by the initiative. Rates of smartphone ownership are much lower among seniors, who are particularly vulnerable to the ravages of covid-19, with just over half of those aged 65 or older saying that they have a smartphone (53 percent). Rates are even lower for those 75 and older, according to the Post-U. Md. poll.
Among the 82 percent of Americans who do have smartphones, willingness to use an infection-tracing app is split evenly, with 50 percent saying they definitely or probably would use such an app and an equal percentage saying they probably or definitely would not. Willingness runs highest among Democrats and people reporting they are worried about a covid-19 infection making them seriously ill. Resistance is higher among Republicans and people reporting a lower level of personal worry about getting the virus.
My take: “Resistance is higher among Republicans.” No comment.
Should we have a characterization of ‘trust’ in both tech and government based on political persuasion? Is that a discussion we want to have?
That’s an exaggeration. Politics has deeply sunk its hooks into this subject. And since it involves Apple, it’s fair game for discussion on this site. He’s judt staying out of it.
But we can still be nice to one another.
Also, I’d be leery of trusting such a small sample. It works out to about 20 random people surveyed per state, or something like 1 out of every 350,000 people.
Finally, the biggest cohort surveyed (almost double the self-identified Republicans) self-identified as “Independent”.
My dad had a quote that seems fitting: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Take ‘em with a large grain of salt.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-americans-who-suffered-when-the-economy-shut-down-are-also-in-more-danger-as-it-reopens/
This simply cries out for being addressed by our nation’s leaders. And by our tech leaders as well.
In California we assembling a large number of people to be trained to do tracing. If this makes their job 20% easier then hooray!
That enables very high levels of security and also performance.
Ie you only need to get the app for your own safety, or to assist others after you are infected, the data will be there anyway.
Have I got it right?
Forget the politics. Basic statistics. Even if 50% intend to use it, less will actually install it. That means low sensitivity to point of useless Plus there are accuracy challenges with location data at 6 feet. That creates hugely annoying false positives.
Let’s get it out there and LOOK at IT first!
And Joe, I always hated your dad’s quote! There are liars, damn liars, and damn liars who mis-use statistics. Statistics are just math.
I can certainly see that Republicans value privacy more than Democrats.