Smart Home Security and Privacy Mitigations: Consumer Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges

As smart home technology is becoming pervasive, smart home devices are increasingly being used by non-technical users who may have little understanding of the technology or how to properly mitigate privacy and security risks. To better inform security and privacy mitigation guidance for smart home devices, we interviewed 40 smart home users to discover their security and privacy concerns and mitigation strategies. Results indicated a number of concerns, but a general willingness to accept risk in lieu of perceived benefit. Concern was sometimes, but not always, accompanied by users taking mitigating actions, although most of these were simplistic and not technical in nature due to limited options or lack of user technical knowledge. Our results inform how manufacturers might empower users to take protective actions, including providing security tips and more options for controlling data being collected by devices. We also identify areas that might benefit from third-party involvement, for example by providing guidance to manufacturers on minimum privacy and security standards or developing a security and privacy rating system to aid users in selecting devices.