Stefan Mileschin

Turns out that mobile revolution passed a lot of people by

The UK government's plans for an NHSX COVID-19 tracing app may run aground because not enough people own a mobile phone.

A survey of a thousand respondents across the United Kingdom, reveaedl that a significant proportion of the population are not prepared to download the app. Indeed, half of respondents (50 percent) know at least one person who does not have the necessary technology, such as a smartphone, to support the NHSX app.

Jamie Stone, Head of EMEA at Anomali said: "The rule of critical mass demands that at least 60 percent of the population uses the app in order for it to be effective. However, these findings point to a significantly diminished pool of users and thus, the critical mass fundamental to the app’s performance now hangs in the balance . Moreover, many of the individuals without the necessary technology likely come from an older generation, or from low-income backgrounds. In this way, excluding the most vulnerable of society from any benefits this app might bring.”

To compound matters, the results of Anomali’s survey reveal that almost a third (29 percent) of respondents have expressly refused to download the app, and a further 27 percent remain on the fence. Among them, over a third (36 percent) worry that the app would allow the government to collect data on them, and almost half (48 percent) have cited their lack of trust in the government to safeguard the information from cybercriminals.
https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/508...y-lack-of-tech