The By-Design Approach Revisited: Lessons from COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps

Authors

Mickey Zar
Niva Elkin-Koren

Abstract

This paper challenges the by-design regulatory approach by exploring the case study of Contact Tracing Apps. It aims to account for the gap between the hopes that were pinned on digital technologies and the rock of reality into which they have crashed. This gap, we argue, results from overestimating the regulatory power of technology and underestimating the co-influence of various regulatory pillars. To address this gap, it is necessary to adopt an ecosystem perspective on sociotechnical systems, where technological design is but one form of regulation. This perspective allows technological design to acquire a social meaning through interaction with other regulatory forces to generate a social outcome.

Recommended Citation

Mickey Zar and Niva Elkin-Koren, The By-Design Approach Revisited: Lessons from COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps, 33 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 635 (2023).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol33/iss3/4