Simplications: Why and how we should rethink data of/by/for the people in smart homes and its privacy implications

TL;DR

This paper discusses the privacy implications of simple sensor data in smart homes, emphasizing that such data is inherently personal and can lead to unintended privacy issues despite good intentions.

Contribution

It highlights the need to rethink data collection and use in smart homes, considering the social and privacy implications of simple sensor data.

Findings

Simple sensors can reveal sensitive personal information.

Unreflected sensor use can lead to privacy breaches.

Sensor data can be used for unintended surveillance within families.

Abstract

More and more smart devices enter our homes. Often these devices come with a variety of sensors, mostly simple sensors, e.g., for light, temperature, humidity or motion. And they all collect data. While it is data of the home environment it is also data of domestic life in the home. Thus it is data of the people and by the people in the home capturing their presence, arrival and departure, typical domestic activities, bad habits, health status etc. Based on previous as well as ongoing research we know that people are actually able to make sense of simple sensor data and that they will make use of it for their own purposes. Simple sensors, when critically reflected, are often only "simple" in a technical sense. The unreflected design and use of these sensors can easily lead to unintended implications, i.e. for privacy. However, it may not even need a Big Brother or data experts or AI to make the data of these sensors sensitive, e.g., if used for lateral surveillance within families. Often unintended but wicked implications emerge despite good intentions, such as improving efficiency or energy saving through collecting sensor data. Thus sensor data from the home is actually data of/by/for the people in the home. First, we explain how this might have relevance across scales of community of people - not only for the domain of the home but also in broader meaning. Second, we relate our previous as well as ongoing research in the domain of smart homes to this topic.