Home Security and Emergency Response: The Convenience vs Security Trade-off

Abstract

The world is increasingly becoming more digitalised as advanced technologies become more affordable and easier to use. Growing digitalisation conjures up many questions about if the “rewards” and added convenience of connectivity outweigh the supposed “risks.” Such risks include peoples’ overdependency, reliability and trust on technologies to provide safety, security and privacy in homes and workplaces; people’s general lack of security consciousness and security hygiene; as well as the (un)suitability of technologies and the strategic use of those technologies to mitigate crime and safety/health risk. Growing “security consumerism” means that nations’ citizens now have an important part to play in improving efficiency in emergency response. It is yet to be known, however, whether smart home security appliances are better than passive or monitored alarm systems, and whether added convenience of home automation is supplementary with the security returns. Using a Security Equilibrium Matrix based on literature review and meta-data analysis, this article hypothesises that smart home security appliances provide more security “returns” than passive alarms with the caveat that cyber security and privacy is sacrificed. It argues that the trade-offs between security and convenience is deeply contextual, and this ultimately affects emergency response on a macro-scale. It argues that technology firms have a huge part to play in reducing the variance between the identified convenience-security trade-offs.