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Main Authors: Zhang, Shuning, Liu, Yijing, Liu, Yuyu, Ma, Ying, Li, Shixuan, Yi, Xin, Wu, Qian, Li, Hewu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12841
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author Zhang, Shuning
Liu, Yijing
Liu, Yuyu
Ma, Ying
Li, Shixuan
Yi, Xin
Wu, Qian
Li, Hewu
author_facet Zhang, Shuning
Liu, Yijing
Liu, Yuyu
Ma, Ying
Li, Shixuan
Yi, Xin
Wu, Qian
Li, Hewu
contents Pervasive data collection by Smart Home Devices (SHDs) demands robust Privacy Protection Mechanisms (PPMs). The effectiveness of many PPMs, particularly user-facing controls, depends on user awareness and adoption, which are shaped by manufacturers' public documentations. However, the landscape of academic proposals and commercial disclosures remains underexplored. To address this gap, we investigate: (1) What PPMs have academics proposed, and how are these PPMs evaluated? (2) What PPMs do manufacturers document and what factors affect these documentation? To address these questions, we conduct a two-phase study, synthesizing a systematic review of 117 academic papers with an empirical analysis of 86 SHDs' publicly disclosed documentations. Our review of academic literature reveals a strong focus on novel system- and algorithm-based PPMs. However, these proposals neglect deployment barriers (e.g., cost, interoperability), and lack real-world field validation and legal analysis. Concurrently, our analysis of commercial SHDs finds that advanced academic proposals are absent from public discourse. Industry postures are fundamentally reactive, prioritizing compliance via post-hoc data management (e.g., deletion options), rather than the preventative controls favored by academia. The documented protections correspondingly converge on a small set of practical mechanisms, such as physical buttons and localized processing. By synthesizing these findings, we advocate for research to analyze challenges, provide deployable frameworks, real-world field validation, and interoperability solutions to advance practical PPMs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_12841
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SoK: Synthesizing Smart Home Privacy Protection Mechanisms Across Academic Proposals and Commercial Documentations
Zhang, Shuning
Liu, Yijing
Liu, Yuyu
Ma, Ying
Li, Shixuan
Yi, Xin
Wu, Qian
Li, Hewu
Human-Computer Interaction
Pervasive data collection by Smart Home Devices (SHDs) demands robust Privacy Protection Mechanisms (PPMs). The effectiveness of many PPMs, particularly user-facing controls, depends on user awareness and adoption, which are shaped by manufacturers' public documentations. However, the landscape of academic proposals and commercial disclosures remains underexplored. To address this gap, we investigate: (1) What PPMs have academics proposed, and how are these PPMs evaluated? (2) What PPMs do manufacturers document and what factors affect these documentation? To address these questions, we conduct a two-phase study, synthesizing a systematic review of 117 academic papers with an empirical analysis of 86 SHDs' publicly disclosed documentations. Our review of academic literature reveals a strong focus on novel system- and algorithm-based PPMs. However, these proposals neglect deployment barriers (e.g., cost, interoperability), and lack real-world field validation and legal analysis. Concurrently, our analysis of commercial SHDs finds that advanced academic proposals are absent from public discourse. Industry postures are fundamentally reactive, prioritizing compliance via post-hoc data management (e.g., deletion options), rather than the preventative controls favored by academia. The documented protections correspondingly converge on a small set of practical mechanisms, such as physical buttons and localized processing. By synthesizing these findings, we advocate for research to analyze challenges, provide deployable frameworks, real-world field validation, and interoperability solutions to advance practical PPMs.
title SoK: Synthesizing Smart Home Privacy Protection Mechanisms Across Academic Proposals and Commercial Documentations
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12841