StatCan study of Canadians’ willingness to use a tracing app
July 31, 2020
Released today, Statistics Canada”s study “Willingness of Canadians to use a contact tracing application” suggests that only 56% of Canadians would be somewhat or very likely to use a contact tracing app if public health authorities recommended they do so. Just over one fifth of Canadians would be very unlikely to use one.
However, in Canada’s three biggest cities, more people were open to using a contact tracing app, as were older Canadians (65+) and immigrants to Canada.
The two biggest reasons people gave for not wanting to use a contact tracing app were privacy concerns and, specifically, government access to their location data.
Retailers themselves are navigating contact tracing apps as they, their customers, employees and communities adapt to COVID-19 economic life.
