Abstract
This study investigates how older adults ages 85 and older view data privacy within smart home technologies and the impact of data privacy on their technology adoption. Privacy has been an important concern among older adults, and prior studies (Kang H.G. et al., 2010) have shown that it has a strong influence on whether they accept new technologies or not, hence it is important to understand their attitudes toward the privacy policies and user agreements of such smart technologies. This was a mixed methods study; our research included semi-structured focus groups and a 32-question survey conducted with 24 older adults 85 years of age and older. Findings suggest that multiple factors contributed to reluctance to adopt newer technologies, including ambiguity around data privacy, low accessibility standards, and unawareness of the most advanced technologies. In this study, we identified potential changes companies should be making around their data privacy practices according to the interviewed older adults to ensure their comfort using these devices and technologies. A privacy policy or user agreement must follow accessibility guidelines not just in terms of visual appeal, but also to allow comprehension, as the words and language used in these documents are hard to understand and are mostly intended for legal professionals. Understanding the content of these documents will make older adults feel more comfortable using the technology and better in control of their own data.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by the MIT AgeLab’s C3 Connected Home Logistics Consortium. The virtual and in-person workshop was supported by Adam Felts, Alexa Balmuth, Lauren Cerino, Sophia Ashebir, Taylor Patskanick, and Thomas Smythe from MIT AgeLab.
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Vaidya, M., Lee, C., D’Ambrosio, L., Ashebir, S., Coughlin, J.F. (2023). Data Privacy and Smart Home Technology Adoption: Older Adults’ Attitudes and Beliefs. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14043. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34917-1_7
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