Privacy Perspectives and Practices of Chinese Smart Home Product Teams

TL;DR

The paper investigates how Chinese smart home product teams perceive and address privacy in a non-WEIRD context, highlighting a strong emphasis on regulatory compliance and cultural factors such as collectivism and Confucianism. It uses 27 semi-structured interviews across roles to reveal how privacy is operationalized during requirements gathering, design, and development, with a notable gap between legal mandates and day-to-day practices. Key contributions include the first in-depth look at product-team privacy practices in China, analysis of power dynamics, and culturally-informed recommendations for privacy-by-design, SME support, and cross-market alignment. The findings have practical implications for policy makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers aiming to strengthen privacy protections in multi-user smart homes in China and similar contexts.

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.