DESCRIPTION
Homes are becoming more and more smart. Upgrading the household with smart devices can potentially reduce energy consumption, assist with chores and increase comfort. However, current smart devices also invite security and privacy risks to our personal domains. Cybercriminals can hack devices such as smart thermostats to crank up the heat to unbearable degrees, and cameras can be used to spy on families during private moments.
Owners of smart devices can do certain things to mitigate and prevent these risks from occurring, such as setting up a separate network for the smart devices or changing the default passwords to something more secure. It is unclear, however, to what extent owners of smart devices actually take these actions, and if not, what holds them back?
With the opening of the IoT-Lab, we have the possibility to study in a lab setting how users interact with smart devices. In this research, you can pick one of these devices and have your participants go through several scenarios and tasks. You can have them go through the procedures of setting up a smart speaker or have them secure it after a request from a visitor.
This research is about exploring users actions and thoughts towards the security and / or privacy of their smart devices: To what extent do they consider it during setup? What do users think is a sufficient amount of security? You can explore these questions or similar ones.
Keywords
Smart home, smart device, IoT, privacy, security,
Research question
Exact research questions will be determined based on student interests after discussion. Example research questions include:
1. Do people take security and or privacy into consideration, while setting up their smart devices?
2. What actions do people take to sufficiently secure their smart devices?
TYPE OF Research
Qualitative, most likely interviews
DATA-ANALySIS
The qualitative data of this study will likely be analysed using Atlas.ti.
INFORMATION
Please contact Lynn Weiher (l.weiher@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to one student.
Literature
- Haney, J. M., Furman, S. M., & Acar, Y. (2020). Smart home security and privacy mitigations: Consumer perceptions, practices, and challenges. In HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust: Second International Conference, HCI-CPT 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings 22 (pp. 393-411). Springer International Publishing.
- Lau, J., Zimmerman, B., & Schaub, F. (2018). Alexa, are you listening? Privacy perceptions, concerns and privacy-seeking behaviors with smart speakers. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 2(CSCW), 1-31.
- Lutz, C., & Newlands, G. (2021). Privacy and smart speakers: A multi-dimensional approach. The Information Society, 37(3), 147-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2021.1897914
- Zeng, E., Mare, S., & Roesner, F. (2017). End user security and privacy concerns with smart homes. In thirteenth symposium on usable privacy and security (SOUPS 2017) (pp. 65-80).
- Zheng, S., Apthorpe, N., Chetty, M., & Feamster, N. (2018). User perceptions of smart home IoT privacy. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 2(CSCW), 1- 20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3274469