Optimistic Access Control for the Smart Home

Nathan Malkin, Alan F. Luo, Julio Poveda, Michelle L. Mazurek

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

One of the biggest privacy concerns of smart home users is enforcing limits on household members' access to devices and each other's data. While people commonly express preferences for intricate access control policies, in practice they often settle for less secure defaults. As an alternative, this paper investigates "optimistic access control"policies that allow users to obtain access and data without pre-approval, subject to oversight from other household members. This solution allows users to leverage the interpersonal trust they already rely on in order to establish privacy boundaries commensurate with more complex access control methods, while retaining the convenience of less secure strategies. To evaluate this concept, we conducted a series of surveys with 604 people total, studying the acceptability and perceptions of this approach. We found that a number of respondents preferred optimistic modes to existing access control methods and that interest in optimistic access varied with device type and household characteristics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages3043-3060
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781665493369
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023 - Hybrid, San Francisco, United States
Duration: May 22 2023May 25 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
Volume2023-May
ISSN (Print)1081-6011

Conference

Conference44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHybrid, San Francisco
Period5/22/235/25/23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Keywords

  • access-control
  • interpersonal-privacy
  • iot
  • iot-privacy
  • smart-home
  • usable-privacy
  • usable-security

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