Paper Info
Title
Contact tracing apps for self-quarantine in South Korea: rethinking datafication and dataveillance in the COVID-19 age
Abstract
Purpose - The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was documented in China, and the virus was soon to be introduced to its neighboring country - South Korea. South Korea, one of the earliest countries to initiate a national pandemic response to COVID-19 with fairly substantial measures at the individual, societal and governmental level, is an interesting example of a rapid response by the Global South. The current study examines contact tracing mobile applications (hereafter, contact tracing apps) for those who were subject to self-quarantine through the lenses of dataveillance and datafication. This paper analyzes online/digital data from those who were mandatorily self-quarantined by the Korean government largely due to returning from overseas travel. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses an Internet ethnography approach to collect and analyze data. To extract data for this study, self-quarantined Korean individuals' blog entries were collected and verified with a combination of crawling and manual checking. Content analysis was performed with the codes and themes that emerged. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, this method is particularly useful to gain access to those who are affected by the situation. This approach advances the author's understandings of COVID-19 contact tracing mobile apps and the experiences of self-quarantined people who use them. Findings - The paper shows Korean citizens' understandings and views of using the COVID-19 self-tracing application in South Korea through examining their experiences. The research argues that the application functions as a datafication tool that collects the self-quarantined people's information and performs dataveillance on the self-quarantined people. This research further offers insights for various agreements/disagreements at different actors (i.e. the self-quarantined, their families, contact tracers/government officials) in the process of contact tracing for COVID-19. Originality/value - This study also provides insights into the implications of information and technology as they affect datafication and dataveillance conducted on the public. This study investigates an ongoing debate of COVID-19's contact tracing method concerning privacy and builds upon an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance, social control and digital sociology. Peer review - The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR08-2020-0377
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0377
ONLINE INFORMATION REVIEW
Keywords
DocType
Volume
COVID-19, Self-quarantine contact tracing apps, Datafication, Dataveillance, Digital sociology, Critical data studies, South Korea
Journal
45
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
4
1468-4527
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Claire Seungeun Lee101.01