Background
We see a steady proliferation of smart devices such as smart speakers, smart TVs and smart security cameras in our homes. Unfortunately, it appears that users of smarthome devices are lacking awareness and understanding of the privacy and security risks of these devices and of the effective countermeasures.
Several qualitative studies have provided some insights into why people think there is a low risk for them personally, such as not finding themselves an interesting target, believing that having so much data out there already means that some more does not make a difference anymore, having trust in the manufacturers of the smart devices, etc (Emami-Naeini et al., 2019; Ghiglieri et al., 2017; Lau et al., 2018; Zeng et al., 2017).
In this master study, you review the literature and develop a model for explaining risk perception and prevention behaviour concerning privacy and security risks of smart devices. You will test the model in the general population to investigate what the strongest predictors are of risk perception and intention to take protective action. These insights will be used to recommend development of specific interventions.
Research questions
1. What are the antecedents of privacy and security risk perception and intention to take protective action?
2. What is the role of variables such as trust in different parties and knowledge of how the devices operate, how one is targeted, and of how to avoid cyber-security?
3. What is the role of individual characteristics such as risk aversion and general trust?
Type of research
Survey study
Keywords
IoT, risk perception, protective behaviour, privacy, security
information
If you are interested in this topic, please contact Steven Watson via s.j.watson@utwente.nl.
Literature
Emami-Naeini, P., Dixon, H., Agarwal, Y., & Cranor, L. F. (2019). Exploring how privacy and security factor into IoT device purchase behavior. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300764
Ghiglieri, M., Volkamer, M., & Renaud, K. (2017). Exploring consumers’ attitudes of smart TV related privacy risks. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58460-7_45
Lau, J., Zimmerman, B., & Schaub, F. (2018). Alexa, Are You Listening? Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2(CSCW), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1145/3274371
Zeng, E., Mare, S., & Roesner, F. (2017). End user security & privacy concerns with smart homes. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth USENIX Conference on Usable Privacy and Security. USENIX Association.