Smarter homes, smarter surveillance? Exploring intimate surveillance practices in modern day households

Abstract

Smart home technologies (SHT) are becoming more and more widespread. The commodification of the household and the surveillance of family life by companies have understandably sparked numerous questions. It should not be forgotten, however, that SHT also bring family members convenient tools to surveil each other. Parental and partner surveillance, further referred to as intimate surveillance, have rarely been studied with regard to the smart home. This article empirically explores intimate surveillance behaviours, intentions and motivations by drawing on an online survey study (n = 715) with parents and partners. Overall, the results show that intimate surveillance takes place with SHT, that parental surveillance intentions are higher than partner surveillance intentions and that care is considered a relevant motivation for intimate surveillance. Furthermore, this study invites to be mindful of the specificities of surveillance practices, and encourages researchers to be explicit about their assumptions on the underlying motivations for intimate surveillance.