Exploring Smart Commercial Building Occupants' Perceptions and Notification Preferences of Internet of Things Data Collection in the United States

Abstract

Data collection through the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or smart devices, in commercial buildings enables possibilities for increased convenience and energy efficiency. However, such benefits face a large perceptual challenge when being implemented in practice, due to the different ways occupants working in the buildings understand and trust in the data collection. The semi-public, pervasive, and multi-modal nature of data collection in smart buildings points to the need to study occupants' understanding of data collection and notification preferences. We conduct an online study with 492 participants in the US who report working in smart commercial buildings regarding: 1) awareness and perception of data collection in smart commercial buildings, 2) privacy notification preferences, and 3) potential factors for privacy notification preferences. We find that around half of the participants are not fully aware of the data collection and use practices of IoT even though they notice the presence of IoT devices and sensors. We also discover many misunderstandings around different data practices. The majority of participants want to be notified of data practices in smart buildings, and they prefer push notifications to passive ones such as websites or physical signs. Surprisingly, mobile app notification, despite being a popular channel for smart homes, is the least preferred method for smart commercial buildings.

arXiv commentEuroS&P 2023 camera ready

References in corpus (4)

• Peek-a-Boo: I see your smart home activities, even encrypted!
• Discovering Smart Home Internet of Things Privacy Norms Using Contextual Integrity
• IoT Inspector: Crowdsourcing Labeled Network Traffic from Smart Home Devices at Scale
• Augmented Reality's Potential for Identifying and Mitigating Home Privacy Leaks