Proof-of-Vax: Studying User Preferences and Perception of Covid Vaccination Certificates

Abstract Digital tools play an important role in fighting the current global COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a representative online study in Germany on a sample of 599 participants to evaluate the user perception of vaccination certificates. We investigated five different variants of vaccination certificates based on deployed and planned designs in a between-group design, including paper-based and app-based variants. Our main results show that the willingness to use and adopt vaccination certificates is generally high. Overall, paper-based vaccination certificates were favored over app-based solutions. The willingness to use digital apps decreased significantly by a higher disposition to privacy and increased by higher worries about the pandemic and acceptance of the coronavirus vaccination. Vaccination certificates resemble an interesting use case for studying privacy perceptions for health-related data. We hope that our work will educate the currently ongoing design of vaccination certificates, give us deeper insights into the privacy of health-related data and apps, and prepare us for future potential applications of vaccination certificates and health apps in general.