The Influence of Privacy on the Acceptance of Technologies for Assisted Living

With population aging and the expected shortage of formal and informal caregivers, emerging technologies for assistive living are on the rise. Focusing on the perspective of the prospective users of these technologies, this study investigates the perceived drivers and barriers that influence AAL adoption. An online survey among 1296 Dutch older adults was conducted. Although loss of privacy was identified as major barrier towards AAL adoption in previous research, the current study provides statistical evidence that these concerns are secondary to the expected benefits of safe and independent living. These findings suggests that older adults consider aging safely in their trusted home environment as a valid trade-off for some loss of privacy. Despite these results, we urge developers to be mindful of privacy aspects when developing AAL applications, as privacy concerns still had a significant negative influence on the attitude towards using AAL.