IoT Assistant

Name: IoT Assistant
Author: Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

DOCUMENTED

Published in academic literature

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App Summary

The IoT Assistant is a privacy tool that helps users discover nearby Internet of Things (IoT) devices and manage their data collection practices through a single interface. An interview-based study (N=17) informing the app's design revealed a key user tension between the desire for control over personal data and the risk of cognitive overload from too many notifications. The associated research concludes that personalized privacy assistants can empower users by helping them manage their privacy settings to align with their individual preferences for control and automation.

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Detailed Description

Functionality & Mechanism

The IoT Assistant system enables the discovery of nearby Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and their associated data collection practices. The application queries a central, crowd-sourced registry of IoT resources to provide details on data controllers, sharing policies, and available privacy controls. The interface facilitates user interaction with these controls, such as opt-in or opt-out functions when made available by the resource owner. A core module delivers customizable notifications regarding specific data collection activities, with user-configurable frequency settings.

Evidence & Research Context

The app's design is detailed in a protocol paper, predicated on an infrastructure that supports discovery of IoT resources and interaction with user-configurable privacy settings.
Formative research, including a development study (N=17) using semi-structured interviews, informed the design by identifying user preferences for balancing granular privacy control against cognitive and notification overload.
A design paper reports significant initial adoption, with the infrastructure registering over 100,000 IoT resource descriptions from a community of over 15,000 users within its first month of deployment.
Associated research details plans to integrate machine learning to build personalized models of user privacy expectations, enabling the system to deliver more relevant and targeted notifications.

Intended Use & Scope

This application is intended for the general public to enhance awareness of and control over personal data collection by registered IoT technologies. Its primary utility is as a transparency and privacy management tool. The system's effectiveness is contingent on the voluntary, crowd-sourced population of its IoT resource registry; it cannot detect unregistered devices or enforce privacy controls not offered by device operators.

Studies & Publications

3 publications

Peer-reviewed research associated with this app.

Development/Design Paper

Design of a Privacy Infrastructure for the Internet of Things

Sadeh et al. (2020) · USENIX PEPR Conference

Describes the research-driven development of this app

We have recently launched a Privacy Infrastructure for the Internet of Things. The infrastructure revolves around a growing collection of registries where owners of IoT resources (e.g. IoT devices, services) and volunteer contributors can publicize the presence of IoT resources and their data practices, including any privacy settings made available by these resources. An IoT Privacy Assistant app available in the iOS store and Android Google Play store enables people to discover IoT resources around them, find out about the data they collect and interact with privacy settings made available by these resources. In this presentation, we will discuss some of the the design challenges associated with the development of such a platform and how we approached these challenges as we developed a first instance of this technology. Within a month, our user community has grown to over 15,000 users, with our infrastructure hosting over 100,000 IoT resource descriptions.

Qualitative Study

Informing the Design of a Personalized Privacy Assistant for the Internet of Things

Colnago et al. (2020) · CHI Conference Proceedings

Users expressed desire for privacy control in smart devices but worried about managing too many notifications.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices create new ways through which personal data is collected and processed by service providers. Frequently, end users have little awareness of, and even less control over, these devices' data collection. IoT Personalized Privacy Assistants (PPAs) can help overcome this issue by helping users discover and, when available, control the data collection practices of nearby IoT resources. We use semi-structured interviews with 17 participants to explore user perceptions of three increasingly more autonomous potential implementations of PPAs, identifying benefits and issues associated with each implementation. We find that participants weigh the desire for control against the fear of cognitive overload. We recommend solutions that address users' differing automation preferences and reduce notification overload. We discuss open issues related to opting out from public data collections, automated consent, the phenomenon of user resignation, and designing PPAs with at-risk communities in mind.

In the Media

App and infrastructure alert users about data collection around them

Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab developed IoT Assistant to help users discover hidden IoT devices around them and learn about their data collection practices, using a map-based interface that reveals smart cameras, microphones, and location trackers. "Our app and infrastructure pave the way towards compliance, allowing people to take control of their privacy," says CyLab's Norman Sadeh, the principal investigator of the Personalized Privacy Assistant Project. The IoT Assistant is available in both the App Store and Google Play, requiring no account creation for users to begin exploring IoT devices in their vicinity.

CmuRead article

New infrastructure will enhance privacy in today's Internet of Things

Carnegie Mellon researchers developed IoT Assistant to address privacy gaps in the physical world where Internet of Things technologies increasingly track activities without providing notices, using an infrastructure that enables IoT device owners to comply with privacy laws. "Because of new laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), people need to be informed about what data is collected about them and they need to be given some choices over these processes," says Professor Norman Sadeh, the principal investigator on the project. The app launched this week and is available for both iOS and Android phones.

CmuRead article