Since 2018, CyLab faculty and students have advocated for IoT labels to empower consumers by providing the knowledge necessary to make informed purchasing decisions.

Led by Cranor and Agarwal, the team has explored how privacy and security factors into IoT device purchase behaviors, finding a willingness among consumers to pay significant premiums for products featuring a consistent label that highlights positive security and privacy features.

In their most recent study, Agarwal and Cranor surveyed over 500 IoT device purchasers, showing them three potential designs of varying complexity for IoT product packaging labels. The low complexity design simply included a shield and QR code, the medium complexity version added a few key security and privacy characteristics, and the high complexity design included extensive security and privacy information.

Consumers overwhelmingly preferred the design with the most information, although they also found the medium complexity design to be understandable and helpful for choosing a product to purchase. A majority of consumers were dissatisfied with the low complexity design, identifying it as their least favorite option.

“We’ve found that consumers want to know about IoT products' security and privacy properties and that having this information influences their risk perception and willingness to purchase smart devices,” says Agarwal. “Our latest research shows that while accessing this information through a QR code can be helpful, consumers prefer to have important security and privacy information readily available on product packaging.”

To learn more about CyLab’s research around IoT security and privacy labels, visit https://www.iotsecurityprivacy.org