Older Adults and Smart Home Devices: A Legal Critique of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Agreements of Voice-Activated Smart Home Devices
摘要
Voice-activated smart home devices (commonly referred to in short as “smart home devices”) are becoming increasingly popular and a staple in many homes. These devices allow the home occupants to use their voice to control various aspects of their daily lives, such as setting reminders, dimming house lights, and adjusting thermostats. Despite the benefits that smart home devices have to offer, older adults commonly avoid using them, which research has found to be in part the result of their concerns revolving around privacy. In this paper, we present the findings of a legal critique investigating how the terms of service (TOS) and privacy policy (PP) agreements of three smart home devices may influence the privacy concerns that older adults hold, and how the TOS and PP agreements of smart home devices can be updated in future to avoid negatively impacting the privacy concerns of older adults.