The continued proliferation of information technology in all aspects of our lives fosters benefits but also generates risks to individuals' privacy. In emerging contexts, such as government surveillance technologies, there is a dearth of research investigating the positive and negative drivers of citizens' acceptance. This is an important gap given the importance of citizen acceptance to the success of these technologies and the need to balance potentially wide-reaching benefits with any dilution of citizen privacy. We conduct a longitudinal examination of the competing influences of positive beliefs and privacy concerns on citizens' acceptance of a COVID-19 national contact tracing mobile application among 405 Irish citizens. Combining privacy calculus theory with social exchange theory, we find that citizens’ initial acceptance is shaped by their perceptions of health benefits and social influence, with reciprocity exhibiting a sustained influence on acceptance over time and privacy concerns demonstrating a negative, albeit weak influence on willingness to rely on the application. The study offers important empirical and theoretical implications for the privacy literature in the government surveillance, location-based services, and mobile health application contexts, as well as practical implications for governments and developers introducing applications that rely on mass acceptance and reciprocal information disclosure.

信息技术在我们生活的各个方面的不断扩散，不仅可以带来好处，但也可能给个人隐私带来风险。在诸如政府监视技术之类的新兴环境中，缺乏对公民接受的积极和消极驱动因素进行研究的研究。鉴于公民对这些技术的成功至关重要，并且需要平衡潜在的广泛利益与公民隐私的任何稀释，这是一个重要的差距。我们对405名爱尔兰公民中积极信仰和隐私问题对公民接受COVID-19国家联系人追踪移动应用程序的竞争影响进行了纵向研究。将隐私演算理论与社会交流理论相结合，我们发现，公民的最初接受程度是由他们对健康益处和社会影响力的感知所决定的，互惠会随着时间的流逝对接受程度产生持续的影响，而隐私问题则显示出负面影响，尽管对依赖该应用程序的意愿产生了负面影响。该研究为政府监视，基于位置的服务和移动医疗应用程序环境中的隐私文献提供了重要的经验和理论意义，也为政府和开发人员引入依赖于大众接受和相互信息披露的应用程序提供了实际意义。尽管对依赖应用程序的意愿影响不大。该研究为政府监视，基于位置的服务和移动医疗应用程序环境中的隐私文献提供了重要的经验和理论意义，也为政府和开发人员引入依赖于大众接受和相互信息披露的应用程序提供了实际意义。尽管对依赖应用程序的意愿影响不大。该研究为政府监视，基于位置的服务和移动医疗应用程序环境中的隐私文献提供了重要的经验和理论意义，也为政府和开发人员引入依赖于大众接受和相互信息披露的应用程序提供了实际意义。