The COVID-19 pandemic was seen by many as a major milestone for the mass uptake and use of eHealth services. Contact tracing applications are part of the eHealth services that can make an important contribution to controlling the spread of the disease. These are only effective when a sufficient proportion of the population (56-60%) actually uses them, which was not achieved in European countries at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we can expect the spread of dangerous viruses in the future, it is necessary to understand the factors of active use and rejection of contact tracing applications. In the Master's thesis, we examined whether demographics (age, gender, and education), general trust in government and technology, perceived ease of use, social influence, perceived usefulness on a personal and societal level, and privacy concerns predict the actual use of a contact tracing application. In the empirical study, we focus on young adults aged between 18 and 35. We use data collected through Prolific's online panel, in June 2022, and focus on a case study of Germany. We find that the key factors predicting the actual use of a contact tracing application are perceived ease of use, social influence and perceived usefulness on the personal level. However, privacy concerns emerged as the most important factor for non-use.
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