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In the smart home landscape, there is an increasing trend of homeowners sharing device access outside their homes. This practice presents unique challenges in terms of security and privacy. In this study, we evaluated the co-management features in smart home management systems to investigate 1) how homeowners establish and authenticate shared users’ access, 2) the access control mechanisms, and 3) the management, monitoring, and revocation of access for shared devices. We conducted a systematic feature analysis of 11 Android and iOS mobile applications (“apps”) and 2 open-source platforms designed for smart home management. Our study revealed that most smart home systems adopt a centralized control model which necessitates shared users to utilize the primary app for device access, while providing diverse sharing mechanisms, such as email or phone invitations and unique codes, each presenting distinct security and privacy advantages. Moreover, we discovered a variety of access control options, ranging from full access to granular access control such as time-based restrictions which, while enhancing security and convenience, necessitate careful management to avoid user confusion. Additionally, our findings highlighted the prevalence of comprehensive methods for monitoring shared users’ access, with most systems providing detailed logs for added transparency and security, although there are some restrictions to safeguard homeowner privacy. Based on our findings, we recommend enhanced access control features to improve user experience in shared settings. 

We conducted 26 co-design interviews with 50 smarthome device owners to understand the perceived benefits, drawbacks, and design considerations for developing a smarthome system that facilitates co-monitoring with emergency contacts who live outside of one’s home. Participants felt that such a system would help ensure their personal safety, safeguard from material loss, and give them peace of mind by ensuring quick response and verifying potential threats. However, they also expressed concerns regarding privacy, overburdening others, and other potential threats, such as unauthorized access and security breaches. To alleviate these concerns, participants designed flexible and granular access control and fail-safe back-up features. Our study reveals why peer-based co-monitoring of smarthomes for emergencies may be beneficial but also difficult to implement. Based on the insights gained from our study, we provide recommendations for designing technologies that facilitate such co-monitoring while mitigating its risks. 

We conducted a user study with 19 parent-teen dyads to understand the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using a mobile app that allows them to co-manage mobile privacy, safety, and security within their families. While the primary goal of the study was to understand the use case as it pertained to parents and teens, an emerging finding from our study was that participants found value in extending app use to other family members (siblings, cousins, and grandparents). Participants felt that it would help bring the necessary expertise into their immediate family network and help protect the older adults and children of the family from privacy and security risks. However, participants expressed that co-monitoring by extended family members might cause tensions in their families, creating interpersonal conflicts. To alleviate these concerns, participants suggested more control over the privacy features to facilitate sharing their installed apps with only trusted family members.