Exploring Privacy Negotiation Strategies for Camera-Equipped Smart Home Devices in Airbnb

Privacy conflicts among multiple users are prevalent in smart environments. To address such conflicts and mitigate the privacy concerns of bystanders, privacy negotiation has been proposed as a promising approach. Yet it remains unclear what makes such negotiations accessible to tenants. In this paper, using camera-equipped smart devices in Airbnb as a case, we explored different privacy negotiation strategies to shed light on future designs to support such actions. We developed 24 storyboards varying four factors, including device types (e.g., driveway camera, video conferencing device for TVs, smart display device), negotiation initiators (host vs. tenant), strategies (physical adjustment vs. monetary compensation), and outcomes (accepted vs. declined). Then, using a vignette survey study (N = 400), we find that device type and strategy significantly shape evaluations: physical adjustment was consistently preferred over monetary compensation, and driveway camera negotiations were evaluated more favorably than those involving indoor devices (video conferencing device for TVs, smart display device). We summarize design implications to support privacy negotiations.