Internet of Things Garage

Privacy-Aware Smart Home Data Management

Interactive Privacy Preferences Management in Shared Spaces in Internet of Things


The balance between protecting users’ privacy while providing cost-effective functional and usable devices is a key challenge in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. The primary user interface in traditional desktop and mobile contexts is a screen. However, in IoT, screens are rare or very small, which invalidate most traditional interaction approaches (i.e., popup notifications). We examine how end-users interact with IoT products and how the IoT devices convey information back to the users, particularly regarding their data (i.e., How IoT devices manage data about end-users). We explore how individuals with a non-technical background can be notified about the privacy-related information of the spaces they inhabit in an easily understandable way.

This project’s primary objective is to develop a tangible device that facilitates interactive privacy preferences management of IoT devices in shared spaces such as smart homes. We envision our ‘PrivacyCube’ as an enhanced privacy notice for the IoT devices and assist people in making informed privacy decisions and increasing privacy awareness. ‘PrivacyCube’ is expected to act as a centralised hub that visualises how various smart home devices manage data. This project has three objectives:






Team


Partners

PETRAS 2

PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity is a consortium of eleven leading UK universities which will work together over the next three years to explore critical issues in privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, acceptability, and security.


Outcomes

Poster
Bayan Al Muhander, Omer Rana, Nalin Arachchilage, and Charith PereraDemo Abstract: PrivacyCube: A Tangible Device for Improving Privacy Awareness in IoT, In Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM Seventh International Conference on Internet-of-Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI) 2022, 109-110 (2)
Poster
Bayan Al Muhander, Jason Wiese, Omer Rana, Charith PereraInteractive Privacy Management: Towards Enhancing Privacy Awareness and Control in Internet of Things, The Nineteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2023), USENIX Security Symposium in Anaheim, CA, USA
Journal
Bayan Al Muhander, Jason Wiese, Omer Rana, Charith Perera, Interactive Privacy Management: Towards Enhancing Privacy Awareness and Control in Internet of Things, ACM Transactions on Internet of Things (TIOT), Volume 4, Issue 3(18), August 2023, pp 1–36