Privacy Lessons Learnt from Deploying an IoT Ecosystem in the Home

Studies of privacy perception in the Internet of Things (IoT) include in-laboratory evaluations as well as investigations of purchase decisions, deployment, and long-term use. In this study, we implemented identical IoT configurations in eight households to evaluate the installation and privacy concerns in the early adoption of IoT devices in our participants' homes. The specific contributions of this work are insights into privacy perceptions of and challenges to the adoption of networked smart home devices and privacy management of IoT devices. The focus in this work was on participants' privacy concerns about devices deployed in an IoT ecosystem influencing their gradual change of use. We detail how we use a three-week longitudinal interview protocol to compare user perceptions of privacy risk. We assessed users' comfort with devices, perceived benefits, and data sensitivity. We discuss the factors identified by participants as relevant to their personal security and privacy management of in-home devices. We close with recommendations for privacy preserving smart home devices grounded in our participants' experiences.