Life-Long Privacy in the IoT? Measuring Privacy Attitudes Throughout the Life-Cycle of IoT Devices

The novelty of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a trend has not given society sufficient time to establish a clear view of what IoT is and how it operates. As such, people are likely to be unaware of the privacy implications, thus creating a gap between the belief of what a device does and its actual behaviour. The responses collected in our online survey indicate that participants tend to see IoT as computer-like devices, rather than appliances, though there are some important misconceptions about the way these devices function. We also find that privacy is a primary concern when it comes to IoT adoption. Nevertheless, participants have a propensity to keep using IoT devices even after they find out that the device abuses their trust. Finally, we provide recommendations to IoT vendors, to make their products more transparent in terms of privacy.