The Internet of Things (IoT) devices are rapidly increasing in popularity, with more individuals using Internet-connected devices that continuously monitor their activities. This work explores privacy concerns and expectations of end-users related to Trigger-Action platforms (TAPs) in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). TAPs allow users to customize their smart environments by creating rules that trigger actions based on specific events or conditions. As personal data flows between different entities, there is a potential for privacy concerns. In this study, we aimed to identify the privacy factors that impact users' concerns and preferences for using IoT TAPs. To address this research objective, we conducted three focus groups with 15 participants and we extracted nine themes related to privacy factors using thematic analysis. Our participants particularly prefer to have control and transparency over the automation and are concerned about unexpected data inferences, risks and unforeseen consequences for themselves and for bystanders that are caused by the automation. The identified privacy factors can help researchers derive predefined and selectable profiles of privacy permission settings for IoT TAPs that represent the privacy preferences of different types of users as a basis for designing usable privacy controls for IoT TAPs.

翻译：物联网设备的普及速度正在加快，越来越多的人使用持续监测其活动的联网设备。本研究探讨了在物联网背景下，最终用户对于触发-行动平台的隐私担忧与期望。触发-行动平台允许用户通过创建规则（基于特定事件或条件触发行动）来定制智能环境。由于个人数据在不同实体间流动，可能引发隐私问题。本研究旨在识别影响用户对物联网触发-行动平台使用意愿的隐私因素。为实现该研究目标，我们组织了15名参与者开展三次焦点小组讨论，并通过主题分析法提炼出九个与隐私因素相关的主题。参与者特别倾向于对自动化过程拥有控制权和透明度，同时担忧自动化带来的意外数据推断、风险以及对自己和旁观者造成的不可预见的后果。所识别的隐私因素可帮助研究人员为物联网触发-行动平台推导出预定义且可选的隐私权限设置配置文件，这些配置代表不同用户类型的隐私偏好，为设计可用的物联网触发-行动平台隐私控制机制奠定基础。