The digital response to COVID-19: Exploring the use of digital technology for information collection, dissemination, and social control in a global pandemic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a global surge in the development and implementation of digital interventions to diagnose, track, prevent and mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. To date, however, there has been little research to characterise the vast scope and scale of these novel, ad hoc and widely varied digital tools. This paper helps fill this gap by providing a descriptive summary of the digital response to COVID-19. The research finds that the digital response can be broken into four main catego- ries: 1) tracking the spread of the virus (contact tracing); 2) controlling social behaviour during the outbreak (social behaviour monitoring); 3) information gathering and dissemination about the virus (one-way and two-way public com- munications); and 4) diagnosis and treatment (remote diagnostics and treatment). This paper describes the four response categories and pro- vides examples of the digital technologies being developed and implemented for these purposes. This descriptive understanding provides a con- textual foundation for subsequent research to analyse the opportunities and challenges asso- ciated with the development, implementation and uptake of digital interventions, alongside the development of analytical frameworks and guidance.