An examination of privacy concerns in the Internet of Things (IoT): a restricted access/limited control (RALC) theory perspective

Wade) as well as the unprecedented change in the infringement of an individual’s private spaces, personal information and intimate decisions, instigated by disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) enabled technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT). Despite this, there is much dissensus in thinking about privacy in the IoT context: i) the presence of conceptual disconnectedness regarding privacy in the IoT context, ii) dysfunctional and absent application of theory in the proposed IoT privacy conceptualisations, as well as iii) the implementation of ad-hoc measurement models used to measure privacy in the IoT context.

This study seeks to explore, identify and develop a contemporary and comprehensive account of privacy by extending to the IoT context the current body of knowledge on the traditional Internet context. Based on the Restricted Access, Limited Control (RALC) theory, a review of previous literature and a rigorous and comprehensive scale development process, this study presents an alternative view of privacy for the nascent environment of IoT.