Strangers in the room: Unpacking perceptions of 'smartness' and related ethical concerns in the home

William Seymour, Reuben Binns, Petr Slovak, Max Van Kleek, Nigel Shadbolt

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference paperpeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The increasingly widespread use of 'smart' devices has raised multifarious ethical concerns regarding their use in domestic spaces. Previous work examining such ethical dimensions has typically either involved empirical studies of concerns raised by specific devices and use contexts, or alternatively expounded on abstract concepts like autonomy, privacy or trust in relation to 'smart homes' in general. This paper attempts to bridge these approaches by asking what features of smart devices users consider as rendering them 'smart' and how these relate to ethical concerns. Through a multimethod investigation including surveys with smart device users (n=120) and semi-structured interviews (n=15), we identify and describe eight types of smartness and explore how they engender a variety of ethical concerns including privacy, autonomy, and disruption of the social order. We argue that this middle ground, between concerns arising from particular devices and more abstract ethical concepts, can better anticipate potential ethical concerns regarding smart devices.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDIS 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages841-854
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781450369749
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jul 2020
Event2020 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2020 - Eindhoven, Netherlands
Duration: 6 Jul 202010 Jul 2020

Publication series

NameDIS 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Conference

Conference2020 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2020
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityEindhoven
Period6/07/202010/07/2020

Keywords

  • Folk theories
  • Mental models
  • Smart devices
  • Smart homes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Strangers in the room: Unpacking perceptions of 'smartness' and related ethical concerns in the home'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this