Preserving Privacy in Smart Homes

Smart homes are expected to reduce the time we spend on routine activities. Data becomes an enabler and asset, as smart devices collect and process it. Smart homes also have the potential to exaggerate bewilderment and resistance, feelings people express when their privacy is infringed. Because privacy is being influenced by socio-cultural factors and shaped by technology, this work argues for a thorough understanding of the home's socio-cultural context. We aim to provide a grounded-in-data, contextual smart home privacy model. The model will be applicable to product and policy design, and also inform future work in privacy research for ubiquitous computing settings.