"Innovative Technologies or Invasive Technologies?": Exploring Design Challenges of Privacy Protection With Smart Home in Jordan

The growing adoption of smart devices has fuelled privacy concerns, and prior research has highlighted the privacy of bystanders: individuals who are subjected to the smart device use of others. Most of this research has focused on households in Western contexts (i.e., Europe and North America), but few studies have explored the design challenges of protecting bystanders, and even fewer have explored these in Muslim Arab Middle Eastern settings, such as Jordan.

We conduct 44 interviews with users (i.e., families, domestic workers), local and international business leaders, and smart device designers to explore design challenges for privacy protection in the Jordanian context. Our analysis highlights the importance of considering contextual influences and power dynamics, localization and design guidelines, innovative technologies, awareness to design, and regulation. This paper concludes with recommendations for technical, social, business, and legal interventions to improve data protection design of smart devices in Jordan.