People are increasingly applying Internet of Things (IoT) devices that help them improve their fitness and provide information about their state of health. Although the acceptance of healthcare devices is increasing throughout the general population, IoT gadgets are reliant on sensitive user data in order to provide full functioning and customized operation. More than in other areas of IoT, healthcare applications pose a challenge to individual privacy. In this study, we examine whether actual and perceived control of collected data affects the willingness to use an IoT healthcare device. We further measure actual behavior as a result of a risk-benefit trade-off within the framework of privacy calculus theory. Our experiment with
N
= 209 participants demonstrates that while actual control does not affect the willingness to use IoT in healthcare, people have a higher intention to use an IoT healthcare device when they perceive to be in control of their data. Furthermore, we found that, prior to their decision, individuals weigh perceived risks and anticipated benefits of information disclosure, which demonstrates the potential to apply the privacy calculus in the context of IoT healthcare technology. Finally, users’ moral considerations of IoT in healthcare are discussed.
Smart technology in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) that extensively gathers user data in order to provide full functioning has become ubiquitous in our everyday life. At the workplace, individual’s privacy is especially threatened by the deployment of smart monitoring technology due to unbalanced power relations. In this work we argue that employees’ acceptance of smart monitoring systems can be predicted based on privacy calculus considerations and trust. Therefore, in an online experiment (N = 661) we examined employees’ acceptance of a smart emergency detection system, depending on the rescue value of the system and whether the system’s tracking is privacy-invading or privacy-preserving. We hypothesized that trust in the employer, perceived benefits and risks serve as predictors of system acceptance. Moreover, the moderating effect of privacy concerns is analyzed.
The increasing number of smart objects in private households leads to a profound invasion of privacy. Based on privacy calculus theory, we assume that many users accept tracking in exchange for full functioning and convenience. However, privacy calculus has not yet been tested in an area where privacy protection is a binary decision: to either use a product or not. Therefore, we examined the effect of convenience and tracking on the intention to use a smart device in a 2 x 2 betweensubjects online experiment (N = 209). While convenience is a major factor for the willingness to deploy smart technology, users do not seem to care whether these devices track their personal data or not.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.