An Effective Communication Strategy Based on Trust: the Key Element to Adopting a Covid-19 Contact Tracking Application

Abstract

To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing applications have been proposed to limit positive cases and reinforce other measures, especially before the appearance of vaccines. A high rate of adoption by citizens is required. This study investigates the impact of trust on the adoption of tracking applications. A survey was administered in Morocco, where the authorities proposed the «Wiqaytna» application. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the proposed model. The model explains 53% of the variance of the “intention to use” and 40.8% of the “actual use” of the application. The model was based on the UTAUT technology acceptance model and the GAM model of e-gov service acceptance. Our main objective was to study the impact of trust in the decision of Moroccans to use this type of application. Technology trust, government trust and social influence were important determinants of intention to use. The proposed model also shows that perceived awareness is an important antecedent of trust constructs. The impact of «perceived awareness» on the trust constructs (technology and government) is stronger than the social influence on the latter. Moreover, our model shows that «Perceived Awareness» has a more significant impact on «technology trust» than on «government trust». Due to their lack of interest (in seeking information) and attention (communications on the application), citizens lack information about the application's usefulness and the security of users' data. Even those who have had contact with the information they are looking for cannot often verify its credibility (e.g. the source code of the «Wiqaytna» application was available on Github). Therefore, cognitive and individual factors give way to social influence, and the intention to use becomes dependent on the norms and suggestions of influential people in the individual's environment. The latter construct is complex and has multiple determinants. Several factors act on the construction of trust in the authorities' quality of public services. Finally, the strongest relationship in the model is the effect of intention to use on using the Wiqaytna application. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for policymakers. First, a significant effort must be made to improve citizens' awareness of the importance of such an application for the control of the pandemic, even after the launch of the vaccination campaign and the application of social distancing measures. Indeed, a few posters here and there and a few commercials are not enough. An effective communication strategy must be built to explain to citizens the critical role these applications can play and reduce fears about citizens' privacy to increase the adoption rate of these applications. Secondly, the role of social influence is critical in adopting applications. This must be considered in communication campaigns and the involvement of opinion leaders and influencers to be more effective and increase the intention to use them.