Seeing is Believing?: Effects of Visualization on Smart Device Privacy Perceptions

Research on smart device privacy has consistently highlighted how privacy is an important concern for users, but they fail to act on their concerns. While this discrepancy between user perceptions and actions has been consistently reported, currently there is a limited understanding of why this is the case or how the situation can be ameliorated. This paper systematically studies how visualizations in privacy assistants can improve the situation, reporting on two studies that explore the users' privacy perceptions in smart device ecosystems. The first study shows that displaying device location and data type reduces the users' privacy perceptions. Participants also weigh the use of media such as online news as a source to inform users about the possible inferences. The second study analyzes participants' preferences to visualize smart device information and privacy policies using augmented reality. Through these two studies, we derive insights and guidelines on how to design effective privacy assistants and to improve user's knowledge of risks associated with data disclosure in smart home scenarios.