Privacy by Design in Aged Care Monitoring Devices? Well, Not Quite Yet!

Aged Care Monitoring Devices (ACMDs) collect and share information about older adults to ensure their wellbeing. While monitoring devices enable older adults to live independently at home, they pose significant privacy challenges. Within HCI, research has sought to understand users’ privacy concerns, but technology developers’ perceptions of privacy have been explored less. According to the Privacy by Design (PbD) framework, developers should incorporate privacy safeguards into devices prior to deployment. However, little is known about how this is done in practice. To better understand developers’ views on privacy, we interviewed 12 developers from ACMD companies and found five factors that affect how they address privacy: 1) users’ requirements, 2) presumptions about users’ privacy perceptions, 3) privacy laws and regulations, 4) third-party providers, and 5) financial challenges. These factors interconnect with other internal organisational challenges. Our research demonstrates the constraints that make it difficult for developers to implement PbD in practice.