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Smart Building Privacy Concerns
Smart Building Privacy Concerns
Harper, Mehrnezhad, Mace, Journal of Computer Security, 2022
Abstract: Smart buildings are socio-technical systems that bring together building systems, IoT technology and occupants. A multitude of embedded sensors continually collect and share building data on a large scale which is used to understand and streamline daily operations. Much of this data is highly influenced by the presence of building occupants and could be used to monitor and track their location and activities. The combination of open accessibility to smart building data and the rapid development and enforcement of data protection legislation such as the GDPR and CCPA make the privacy of smart building occupants a concern. Until now, little if any research exists on occupant privacy in work-based or commercial smart buildings. This paper addresses this gap by conducting two user studies (N=81 and N=40) on privacy concerns and preferences about smart buildings. The first study explores the perception of the occupants of a state-of-the-art commercial smart building, and the latter reflects on the concerns and preferences of a more general user group who do not use this building. Our results show that the majority of the participants are not familiar with the types of data being collected, that it is subtly related to them (only 19.75% of smart building residents (occupants) and 7.5% non-residents), nor the privacy risks associated with it. After being informed more about smart buildings and the data they collect, over half of our participants said that they would be concerned with how occupancy data is used. These findings show that despite the more public environment, there are similar levels of privacy concerns for some sensors to those living in smart homes. The participants called for more transparency in the data collection process and beyond, which means that better policies and regulations should be in place for smart building data.
Comparison of participant privacy concerns revisited, 1st: residents of smart building, 2nd: non-residents
Comparison of participant privacy concerns revisited, 1st: residents of smart building, 2nd: non-residents
In this follow-up to our previous study (as seen below), we surveyed an additional 40 participants who do not use the Urban Sciences Building and compared their results with those of the original participants.
Our results show that both smart building residents and non-residents have serious privacy concerns about data collection in smart buildings.
Power imbalances in home environments can be a cause of user privacy concerns in smart homes. Similarly, this sort of power imbalance can be present in working environments, with some of our participants' responses mentioning worries about being monitored by their bosses at work. This may explain the similar level of concerns that we found.
We provide a set of recommendations for various stakeholder groups, including changes to regulation, increased transparency, effectively obtaining consent, and enabling occupants to communicate any concerns they do have.
Harper, Mehrnezhad, Mace, 10th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security, ESORICS workshop, 2020.
Harper, Mehrnezhad, Mace, 10th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security, ESORICS workshop, 2020.
Abstract: Smart buildings are socio-technical systems that bring together building systems, IoT technology and occupants. A multitude of embedded sensors continually collect and share building data on a large scale which is used to understand and streamline daily operations. Much of this data is highly influenced by the presence of building occupants and could be used to monitor and track their location and activities. The combination of open accessibility to smart building data and stringent data protection legislation such as the GDPR makes the privacy of smart building occupants a concern. Until now, little if any research exists on occupant privacy in work-based or commercial smart buildings. This paper begins to address this gap by reporting on a study conducted amongst occupants of a state-of-the-art commercial smart building to understand their privacy concerns and preferences. Our results show that the majority of the occupants are not familiar with the types of data being collected, that it is subtly related to them, nor the privacy risks associated with it. When we informed occupants about this data and the risks, they became more concerned and called for more transparency in the data collection process. The occupants were also largely averse to open accessibility of the collected data.
This paper presents the first user study on the privacy concerns and preferences of the occupants of smart buildings when used as their workplace.
In this study, we surveyed 81 occupants of the Urban Sciences Building (USB), a university smart building at Newcastle University, UK.
We asked them about their general views on privacy, followed by questions aimed more specifically towards data that may be collected in a smart building when used as a workplace.
We then gave them additional information on the USB, including the types of sensors and how the data is used, e.g., maintaining the building environment and for research purposes.
We performed a mixture of quantitative and qualitative (thematic) analysis to learn about the participants' awareness, concerns and preferences.
Participants expressed concerns about the data collected in these buildings and believed that more transparency is required throughout the whole cycle of data collection, storage, processing, usage and beyond.
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