Monitored and Cared for at Home? Privacy Concerns When Using Smart Home Health Technologies to Care for Older Persons

Abstract

Background States and families are facing growing challenges provide adequate care for older persons. Smart home health technologies (SHHTs) in the forms of sensor or robotic devices have been discussed as technical solutions for caregiving. Ethical and social concerns are raised with the use of such technologies for caregiving purposes, a particularly prominent one being privacy. This paper contributes to the literature by distinguishing privacy concerns into both the type of technologies and conceptual dimensions. Methods Data for this paper stem from sixty semi-structured interviews with older persons, informal, and formal caregivers living in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland. All information related to privacy, that were initially inductively coded, were thematically sorted into four dimensions of privacy (physical, psychological, social, and informational) and by the type of technologies studied. Results Participants were especially concerned about privacy intrusions from smart wearables and ambient sensors than robotic technologies, which may be due to the relative lack of familiarity with the latter. Informational privacy was evident in the context of data collection capacities and potential for misuses of data. The installation and implementation of both visual and ambient sensors induced discomfort to their senses of physical space. Alerts of smart wearables and obtrusive sightings of SHHTs garnered worries related to stigmatization and manipulation, indicating intrusions into end-users’ psychological privacy. Little discussions of social dimensions of privacy were evident in the data, even toward robotic technologies for their functions to promote social interactions for older persons. Conclusions This paper is one of the first that use the stratification approach on empirical data to highlight the multi-faceted privacy concerns when technologies may be implemented in elder care. Our paper could thus supports potential end-users in deciding which technologies to use and how to balance different privacy concerns against other values that they may hold important.