Making sense of the pandemic through data: the italian case

Forms of datafication during the COVID-19 pandemic have varied by country. The biggest concerns relating to datafication of citizens were the spread of contact tracing apps, and how they would potentially harm citizens’ privacy. Some have suggested that people have become passively accustomed to surveillance by private multinational companies1 but are reluctant to agree to be monitored by their country’s Ministry of Health. In Italy, as in many other countries, many controversies have arisen around health-tracking apps. In the end, the Italian app Immuni was released on June 2, 2020, and in eight days it was downloaded by two million Italian citizens. 2 While this might seem like a success story, the reality is more complicated. Experts pointed out that at least 30 million downloads would be needed to make the app useful for contact tracing. 3 There are many doubts about the possibility of reaching these numbers, partly because older smartphone models do not support the app.