Formulating a Privacy Design Toolkit for Tailoring Remote Healthcare Technology to Older Adults

Dr. Sonia Chiasson’s research explores the privacy expectations of older adults using remote healthcare technologies in the home. As more older adults seek to live independently for longer, tools such as connected blood pressure monitors, diabetes monitoring devices, fall detection systems, and assistive technologies may help support health and well-being. However, these technologies can also feel intrusive, especially when they are not designed with older adults’ privacy needs and preferences in mind. 

Through surveys, interviews, and toolkit development, Dr. Chiasson and her collaborators (Daniela Napoli, Hélène Fournier and Heather Molyneaux) examined how older adults think about data collection, monitoring, and sharing in remote healthcare contexts. The research found that older adults are generally open to using these technologies when they provide a clear health benefit, particularly for urgent healthcare needs. At the same time, participants wanted agency over what information is collected, who it is shared with, and how those choices might change depending on their health, family relationships, caregiving arrangements, and personal circumstances.

The project’s findings highlight that older adults are not a single, uniform group: their privacy expectations are diverse, nuanced, and dynamic. To help translate these insights into practice, the team developed a design toolkit for designers, developers, and researchers working on remote healthcare technologies. The toolkit supports more thoughtful design by summarizing data-sharing preferences, identifying key needs and challenges, and incorporating participant perspectives to help ensure that future technologies better reflect what older adults actually want and need.