The number of IoT devices in smart homes is increasing. This broad adoption facilitates users' lives, but it also brings problems. One such issue is that some IoT devices may invade users' privacy. Some reasons for this invasion can stem from obscure data collection practices or hidden devices. Specific IoT devices can exist out of sight and still collect user data to send to third parties via the Internet. Owners can easily forget the location or even the existence of these devices, especially if the owner is a landlord who manages several properties. The landlord-owner scenario creates multi-user problems as designers build machines for single users. We developed tags that use wireless protocols, buzzers, and LED lighting to lead users to solve the issue of device discovery in shared spaces and accommodate multi-user scenarios. They are attached to IoT devices inside a unit during their installation to be later discovered by a tenant. These tags have similar functionalities as the popular Tile models or Airtag, but our tags have different features based on our privacy use case. Our tags do not require pairing; multiple users can interact with them through our Android application. Although researchers developed several other tools, such as thermal cameras or virtual reality (VR), for discovering devices in environments, they have not used wireless protocols as a solution. We measured specific performance metrics of our tags to analyze their feasibility for this problem. We also conducted a user study to measure the participants' comfort levels while finding objects with our tags attached. Our results indicate that wireless tags can be viable for device tracking in residential properties.

翻译：智能家居中物联网设备数量持续增长。这种广泛普及在便利用户生活的同时也带来了问题——部分物联网设备可能侵犯用户隐私。此类侵犯可能源于模糊的数据收集行为或隐藏设备：特定物联网设备可隐匿在视线之外，仍通过互联网收集用户数据并发送给第三方。业主（尤其是管理多套房产的房东）容易遗忘这些设备的位置甚至存在。房东-租户场景造成多用户问题，而设备设计者通常仅考虑单用户场景。我们开发的标签采用无线协议、蜂鸣器和LED照明，引导用户解决共享空间中的设备发现难题，并适配多用户场景。这些标签在设备安装时附着于物联网设备，便于后续被租户发现。其功能与流行的Tile系列或AirTag类似，但基于隐私保护用例具备不同特性：无需配对，多个用户可通过我们的安卓应用与之交互。尽管研究人员已开发热成像相机、虚拟现实（VR）等其他环境设备发现工具，但尚未有方案将无线协议作为解决方案。我们测量标签的具体性能指标以分析其解决该问题的可行性，并通过用户研究评估参与者使用附着标签寻找物体时的舒适度。结果表明，无线标签可有效用于住宅物业的设备追踪。