Identifying the Public Interest in COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps in Switzerland Based on Online Search Behavior

One major discussion point during the COVID-19 crisis is the use of digital contact tracing applications to reduce the spreading of the Corona virus among the population. Whereas this is important for public health from a pandemic point of view, this raised many discussions about privacy and other data mining concerns in the population.
In this study we monitored the search behavior of the Swiss online population from mid of May until mid of June to measure the public interest in digital contact tracing and corresponding applications. We identified the most popular keywords and we followed the online channels that were primarily used to search for such topics. Such insights are crucial to enhance the visibility and acceptance of digital contact tracing applications.