Cyber Physical Privacy for Independent Living and Ageing

Project Overview

Co-designs privacy tooling and conversational assistants that help older adults manage smart-home data while maintaining independence.

Smart home technologies offer significant benefits for older adults and vulnerable populations, enabling independent living through remote monitoring and automated assistance. However, privacy concerns significantly deter elderly adoption of these monitoring technologies. Many older adults worry about how smart devices collect and share their personal data, creating barriers to technology acceptance that could otherwise improve their quality of life.

This project addresses these concerns by augmenting existing smart home systems with improved privacy configuration mechanisms. The research pursues three main objectives: reviewing privacy-aware IoT design approaches for older people, co-designing IoT privacy solutions that support successful ageing, and creating and evaluating privacy toolkits that enhance older adult experiences. Through co-design workshops and prototypes such as a voice-enabled privacy assistant and physical privacy artifacts, the project helps residents configure data practices, understand what information is being collected, and reinforce trust between families, carers, and technology providers.

Team

Reem Aldhafiri

Omer Rana

Georgina Powell

Liz Smith

Charith Perera

Partners

Innovate Trust Supports disabled, elderly, and vulnerable people across the local community.

PETRAS 2 PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity explores privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, and security issues across connected systems.

Outcomes