Privacy Perspectives and Practices of Chinese Smart Home Product Teams

2025-06-06

AI Summary

This study investigates privacy practices within Chinese smart home development teams operating in a non-Western context, examining how legal regulation, cultural logics, and security-first orientations shape privacy-by-design decisions. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 27 cross-functional practitioners and thematic coding analysis, it systematically identifies compliance-driven practices anchored in China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and Data Security Law (DSL); reveals distinctive privacy trade-offs arising in multi-user household settings; and proposes a localized privacy governance framework integrating national security imperatives with protections for vulnerable users. Key contributions include: (1) the first empirically grounded typology of privacy practices tailored to Chinese smart hardware teams; and (2) actionable privacy-enhancing design principles and policy intervention pathways that bridge the contextual gap between global privacy theory and China-specific implementation realities.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Privacy & Security
• Machine Learning: Privacy
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Privacy-enhancing technologies
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User privacy protection in personalized systems
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

Previous research has explored the privacy needs and concerns of device owners, primary users, and different bystander groups with regard to smart home devices like security cameras, smart speakers, and hubs, but little is known about the privacy views and practices of smart home product teams, particularly those in non-Western contexts. This paper presents findings from 27 semi-structured interviews with Chinese smart home product team members, including product/project managers, software/hardware engineers, user experience (UX) designers, legal/privacy experts, and marketers/operation specialists. We examine their privacy perspectives, practices, and risk mitigation strategies. Our results show that participants emphasized compliance with Chinese data privacy laws, which typically prioritized national security over individual privacy rights. China-specific cultural, social, and legal factors also influenced participants' ethical considerations and attitudes toward balancing user privacy and security with convenience. Drawing on our findings, we propose a set of recommendations for smart home product teams, along with socio-technical and legal interventions to address smart home privacy issues-especially those belonging to at-risk groups-in Chinese multi-user smart homes.

Problem

• Explores privacy views of Chinese smart home product teams
• Investigates compliance with Chinese data privacy laws
• Proposes interventions for privacy issues in multi-user smart homes

Innovation

• Interviews with Chinese smart home teams
• Focus on compliance with Chinese laws
• Propose socio-technical and legal interventions