An In-depth Review of Privacy Concerns Raised by the COVID-19 Pandemic

TL;DR

This paper reviews how the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened privacy concerns due to increased online activities and self-disclosure, analyzing threats and proposing future research directions.

Contribution

It systematically analyzes privacy issues related to COVID-19 and suggests new research directions and potential solutions for online privacy challenges.

Findings

Identified three increasing privacy threats during COVID-19

Analyzed user self-disclosure behaviors on social media

Proposed future research directions and privacy solutions

Abstract

COVID-19 has hugely changed our lives, work, and interactions with people. With more and more online activities, people are easily exposed to privacy threats. In this paper, we explore how users self-disclose on social media and privacy concerns raised from these behaviors. Based on recent news, techniques, and research, we indicate three increasing privacy threats caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, we provide a systematic analysis of potential privacy issues related to the COVID pandemic. Furthermore, we propose a series of research directions about online user self-disclosure and privacy issues for future work as well as possible solutions.