Voice-Enabled Privacy Assistant Towards Facilitating Successful Ageing in Smart Homes

Abstract

In recent years, people have increasingly introduced smart speakers into their living spaces, but many lack an understanding of how their data is collected, processed, and used. In addition, people are often unsure how to configure the privacy settings of their devices. Therefore, we present Privacy Assistant, a novel conversational interface designed to empower people to understand how data is collected, processed and stored and configure their privacy settings. We focused on older people who are at additional risk of low understanding of privacy settings and data handling on voice assistants. We developed an Amazon skill that interacts with users and guides them through the privacy settings of smart speakers. This skill assists people in understanding key features (voice recordings, location, and voice purchasing) so they can make informed decisions about privacy settings. We took a user-design approach to iteratively improve the prototype based on two successive rounds of feedback with end-user (older people who own smart speakers). We found that older people preferred the Privacy Assistant to standard configuration procedures (i.e., through an app or webpage). We also found that the Privacy Assistant increased their knowledge and awareness of privacy settings and data management on voice assistants. (Demo Video)