Privacy concerns in assisted living technologies

The challenges of an aging population require the adoption of in-
home 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.