Creating a Tool to Help Improve Users' Knowledge and Perceptions of Safety around IoT Devices

Abstract

IoT (Internet of Things) devices can be extremely useful, but many users have privacy concerns when using these devices. We wanted to explore users' privacy concerns with their IoT devices and the methods that they currently use in order to protect their privacy, and to identify their needs for a privacy protection tool. We found that these users are concerned about their privacy, but find that the convenience of using these devices outweighs the privacy concerns that they have. We then had them explore a mock-up of a user interface for a tool to help protect user privacy, and conducted a co-design with them to modify the tool to ensure that it is convenient for the user and helps protect their privacy when using these devices.