Navigating covid-19 era systems: Digital contact tracing use discontinuance

Soon after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, many countries started to develop digital contact tracing applications (CTAs) to address the crisis. In Finland, Koronavilkku CTA was published in late August 2020, and the number of users peaked at almost 2,5 million users in April 2021. Some six months later in December 2021, however, there had already been a net loss of 900 000 users. While information system usage as well as CTAs more specifically have been extensively studied from acceptance and adoption perspectives, studies explaining this kind of a use discontinuation process remain relatively scarce. Moreover, as the adoption rate has implications on the effectiveness on the context of digital contact tracing, this thesis explores how and why users make the decisions to discontinue the use of digital contact tracing applications. The objective of this study was to generate an understanding of the ways and reasons former CTA users have had to discontinue the use in order to inform research and the development and management of applications in potential future crisis situations. This thesis is a single case study on Finnish Koronavilkku application. In terms of secondary research, literature on information systems lifecycle in general as well as the design and current state of CTA lifecycle research are reviewed. The empirical section of the study uses qualitative methods to explore and interpret CTA users’ experiences and perceptions. 15 semi-structured interviews of former Koronavilkku users were conducted to understand the users’ perceptions and experiences regarding CTA adoption, continued use and, eventually, discontinuation. Based on these interviews, user vignettes were formulated, and the findings were compared and contrasted in a thematical analysis. The results of this study indicate that users recognize the CTA multi-layered benefits, adopting the application mostly due to its perceived societal level benefits. The only inconveniences experienced were marginal, for example with device battery life, instead of major concerns such as privacy as the users seem to have trusted the authorities. Moreover, the system’s perceived usefulness was reflected on and, while the use was effortless to the point of being passive, it was disrupted as the interviewees did not for the most part personally experience the CTA working, as there were so few exposure notifications. As a result, there were different paths to and contents of discontinuation, including periods of dormancy and temporary non-use for some. In conclusion, digital contact tracing use was discontinued in the Koronavilkku context as the application was perceived to not to be useful anymore, as its objective of breaking the chains of infection had become obsolete or, lastly, because of a combination of these reasons