"Is it always watching? Is it always listening?" Exploring Contextual Privacy and Security Concerns Toward Domestic Social Robots

TL;DR

This study explores U.S. users' privacy and security concerns regarding domestic social robots, emphasizing the need for transparency, controls, and reliable functionality to support safe adoption.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into user concerns about social robots' privacy and security, informing design considerations for early-stage commercialization.

Findings

Users worry about data privacy, misinformation, and device reliability.

Participants desire tangible privacy controls and data collection indicators.

Concerns vary across educational and medical applications.

Abstract

Equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced sensing capabilities, social robots are gaining interest among consumers in the United States. These robots seem like a natural evolution of traditional smart home devices. However, their extensive data collection capabilities, anthropomorphic features, and capacity to interact with their environment make social robots a more significant security and privacy threat. Increased risks include data linkage, unauthorized data sharing, and the physical safety of users and their homes. It is critical to investigate U.S. users' security and privacy needs and concerns to guide the design of social robots while these devices are still in the early stages of commercialization in the U.S. market. Through 19 semi-structured interviews, we identified significant security and privacy concerns, highlighting the need for transparency, usability, and robust privacy controls to support adoption. For educational applications, participants worried most about misinformation, and in medical use cases, they worried about the reliability of these devices. Participants were also concerned with the data inference that social robots could enable. We found that participants expect tangible privacy controls, indicators of data collection, and context-appropriate functionality.