Research Report: User Perceptions of Smart Home Privacy and Security

Smart home technologies may expose adopters to increased risk to network security, information privacy, and physical safety. However, users may lack understanding of the privacy and security implications, while devices fail to provide transparency and configuration options. This results in little meaningful mitigation action to protect users’ security and privacy. To better understand users’ perceptions of smart home privacy and security, we conducted an in-depth interview study of 40 smart home users. In this document, we report the study findings related to perceptions of data collection/use, privacy and security concerns, and mitigations employed to alleviate concerns. We found that users have varied, and often unclear, understandings of how smart home data are collected and used. In addition, although users may have security and privacy concerns, many participants displayed a willingness to accept risks in favor of smart home benefits, and they feel limited responsibility for mitigating these due to constrained options or lack of knowledge to enact more sophisticated countermeasures. While this report is not meant to be prescriptive, an understanding of user perceptions may be used to inform future smart home security and privacy guidance for manufacturers and users.