Privacy concerns in assisted living technologies

The challenges of an aging population require the adoption of inhome and medical technologies to complement the traditional caregiver model. Adoption of such technologies is, however, impinged by privacy concerns. This study investigates a four dimensional framework that explains the tradeoffs between functionality and privacy as constructed by older adults. The four dimensions constitute perceived utility, data granularity, data recipient, and activity sensitivity. We conducted a survey based study to empirically examine the applicability and robustness of this framework. Our results have implications for the adoption of a wide range of privacy enhancing technologies. By focusing on the intersection of an under-studied group (non-technical older adults) and sensitive data (medical and at home), this work has the potential to enable Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that might be widely adopted.