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Smart Home Privacy Policies Demystified: A Study of Availability, Content, and Coverage

Paper Details

Abstract

Smart home devices transmit highly sensitive usage information. Consumers should be informed about how companies handle this data so they can weigh the benefits of the technology against a possible loss of privacy. 

Researchers performed a systematic and data-driven study of privacy policies of 596 smart home vendors, focusing on three key aspects related to privacy: 

  • Availability (difficulty of obtaining privacy policies).
  • Content (description of collection and sharing of device data).
  • Coverage (comparison of description against the devices sold by the vendor). 

Researchers found severe gaps in smart home privacy policies and uncovered critical insights to guide the creation of tools to boost privacy within the smart home ecosystem.