Harm Reduction for Health Internet of Things (IoT) Devices

• In Event: Toward a Critical Health Informatics: Traversing Policy and Practice II - Cases and Explorations

Abstract

As health and healthcare becomes more electronically mediated, it is critical for any associated privacy risks to be well understood. In addition, since technological and health risks are not distributed homogenously, but rather experienced unequally due to the lived experiences and identities of users (as a result of their race/ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, citizenship, or any combination thereof) it is critical to outline these risks as a function of what the most minoritized users are likely to experience. Reducing risks for the most marginalized means less risk for society as a whole. This work builds on previous research on risk perception expanding our understanding of risks and harms specific to the above minoritized groups within the added surveillance structures of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Harm reduction is a well-established approach to addressing how to navigate risk in higher risk situations, especially for health-related risks. Support for applying harm reduction strategies in a user driven way, with a focus on integrating the perspectives of affected individuals (and communities, continues to grow. This work focuses security and privacy evaluations of popular Internet of Things (IoT) devices whose primary purpose is not health related but may have auxiliary health functions or capabilities (i.e., a smart speaker listening for users coughing due to COVID-19) as well as internet connected health devices used both commercially (i.e., pulse oximeter) and in the home (i.e., fitness tracker) in order to provide public policy recommendations for better protection of consumer privacy.

Author

• Laura Calloway, Indiana University