Trust in the institution and privacy management of Internet of Things devices. A comparative case study of Dutch and Norwegian households

Abstract

In a society that is everyday more digitized, the legislation is slowly catching up with the latest frontiers of privacy related vulnerabilities, especially when it comes to the Internet of Things. However, studies have shown that the responsibility for data protection falls more and more on the shoulders of individual users, that are often ill-equipped to recognize threats and take the necessary measures to ensure their right to privacy is respected. Combining qualitative data from two different interdisciplinary studies, this paper investigates the different cultural traits of the Netherlands and Norway, aiming to answer the research question of how trust in the national institutions influences Norwegians’ and Dutch’s approach to privacy and IoT devices in the home