2025 Reports

Designing a Sensor-Driven Smart Home: A Systemic Reflection on Intelligence, Privacy, and Ethical Design

Lamria, Glory

This paper presents a systemic design and ethical analysis of a sensor-driven smart home, conceptualized as a layered network of perception, communication, and decision-making. It examines the roles of key sensors, including motion, temperature and humidity, voice, camera, and door or window sensors, in shaping both functional automation and behavioral data capture. The study outlines a multi-layered IoT architecture consisting of perception, network, processing, and application layers, highlighting how data flows between edge and cloud systems to enable responsive home environments.

Beyond technical functionality, the paper critically evaluates the privacy, security, and ethical implications of pervasive sensing, including risks such as passive surveillance, consent erosion, data monetization, and system vulnerabilities. A comparative case study of Amazon Ring and Apple HomeKit illustrates contrasting approaches to data governance and user control. The paper argues for a design paradigm centered on user sovereignty, advocating for privacy-first architectures, local processing, and transparent data governance. Ultimately, it positions the smart home not merely as a technological system, but as an ethical infrastructure that reflects broader questions of autonomy, trust, and human-centered design.

Keywords: Smart Home, Internet of Things (IoT), Sensor Systems, Edge Computing, Privacy and Security, Data Governance, Human-Centered Design, Smart Home Architecture, Surveillance Ethics, Home Automation