My home is my castle: empowering consumers’ data literacy in the digital home - a case study on voice assistants

The well-known phrase in the title of this thesis is based on the idea of one's own home as a place of security, self-determination, sovereignty, and retreat. The proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in private households and the interconnectivity of internet-enabled devices with one another and the external environment give rise to the supposition that the concept of the home may undergo a transformation. This is due to the fact that the data collected and processed by IoT devices also exerts an influence on the home. However, permanent recording often takes place in the background and unnoticed by the residents.
The work for this thesis therefore was an examination of the extent to which consumers are aware of and can deal with the data collected in their households and what practices and solutions can help them overcome the uncertainties that sometimes exist. Consequently, the focus for this thesis, in particular, was on voice assistants (VAs), as on the one hand they serve as a platform in the smart home to control other devices and thus have corresponding usage data and, on the other hand, they can intentionally as well as unintentionally collect user data through their microphones as invisible and potentially "always-listening" sensors.
Methodologically, the work was based on a living lab with which a design case study was conducted. Moreover, qualitative approaches were used with a mix of methods to examine consumers in terms of their data literacy and working practices, using VAs as an example. To increase their data literacy, human-centered design approaches were used to implement a tool that would increase their awareness of data, empower them in data work practices and ultimately increase their data literacy. The end result was a prototype that allows users to request, view, and explore their interactions with their VA in order to identify saved interactions and recognize their own behavioral patterns.
Finally, the work done for this thesis is an important contribution to the research areas of Usable Privacy, Information Visualization, and ultimately Consumer Informatics:
First, and with regard to Usable Privacy, current data access and work practices were investigated, to identify and address the barriers in data work for increasing data awareness and literacy based on identified user needs and challenges. The results showed that existing provider solutions such as apps or data access processes (in accordance with the GDPR) are complicated and only provide limited or insufficient information about the stored personal data. The derived user experience journey and the prototype to support data requests for user data (using the example of VA systems) can ultimately help companies to make it easier for their users to access data. Moreover, they can be used to provide initial approaches to making formats that are usually only machine-readable also human-readable.
Furthermore, in order to promote human readability and data awareness, Information Visualization approaches were used to prepare the raw data in an understandable way. This was done to reduce the uncertainties and knowledge gaps on the part of consumers. The example of VAs was used to show that consumers were often unaware of the multitude of everyday interactions, but also of misactivations. In addition, further visualizations showed how strongly the devices of the VAs and the system as a whole are interwoven in the "home" ecosystem and everyday consumer life.
Finally, the work done for this thesis contributed to the field of Consumer Informatics, as the increased data literacy resulting in particular from the aforementioned points enables consumers to regain more control and awareness over their homes and their (digital) consumption practices. Precisely because the demarcation of privacy and personal information (such as preferences, settings, and usage data) in the domestic context is made more difficult by data-collecting products and services, the approaches and solutions investigated and developed in this thesis provide promising support options for consumers. The results of the work, therefore, make an important contribution to redressing the imbalance of information and power between consumers and companies.