Navigating Autonomy and Privacy in Emerging AgeTech: Insights from the FPF Roundtable

As AgeTech expands into homes across the country—seeking to enable older adults to live independently longer—fundamental questions about autonomy, privacy, and trust are coming into sharper focus. How do we balance caregiver support with individual privacy? Should data pertaining to older adults be treated as “sensitive?” And in a fragmented privacy and consumer protection landscape, how do we build the trustworthiness necessary for adoption?

The Future of Privacy Forum recently convened a pivotal AgeTech Roundtable, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to delve into the ethical, legal, and policy challenges presented by the rapidly expanding field of AgeTech. The core discussions centered on balancing the growth of these tools without compromising the fundamental autonomy and privacy of the older adults they are intended to serve. This post highlights key themes from the roundtable and outlines next steps in FPF’s ongoing AgeTech initiative.

The Core Tension: Privacy vs. Autonomy

AgeTech devices, ranging from smart home sensors to AI-enabled companion devices, collect highly sensitive personal data, including health, location, voice, and behavioral patterns. A critical nuance explored during the roundtable was the unique privacy calculation older adults face: the willingness to accept continuous monitoring in exchange for the ability to live independently at home for longer.

However, this trade-off is complicated by several factors:

• The Caregiver’s Role: Consent for data practices is often managed and given by the caregiver, raising complex questions about the older adult’s autonomy and their right to control their own information. Collaborative controls were a key point in roundtable discussions. Technical practices must be determined to ensure caregivers have adequate access without impeding the autonomy of older adults.
• Design Defaults: Default settings and behavioral nudges within the technology can shape these decisions in ways users may not fully understand, underscoring the need for privacy and security to be central design features, not afterthoughts.

The Crisis of Trust: Fraud and AI

Scams targeting older adults are one of the top consumer protection concerns, and the rising phenomenon of fraud and financial theft severely undermines trust in AgeTech products.

• AI’s Dual Role: The roundtable noted that AI has the potential to both enable fraud (making it faster and more convincing) and help detect it. Solutions that identify fraudulent calls, however, must navigate complex legal barriers like wiretap laws and consent requirements.
• Trust is Paramount: If users cannot trust the products they engage with, adoption will fail, highlighting the connection between privacy, autonomy, and security in combating financial harms.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The insights gathered at the roundtable—which centered on the ethical, legal, and policy challenges in the emerging AgeTech landscape—provide a robust foundation for FPF’s continued work to ensure that Agetech serves to enhance, not diminish, the dignity and independence of older adults.

Recommendations and next steps from roundtable attendees included:

• Accessible Resources: Developing resources, such as current technical practices that are emerging for developers and deployers of Agetech to support privacy and autonomy, and red teaming to test for potential product abuse.
• Legal Focus: Clarifying areas of ambiguity and legal conflict to inform compliance efforts and potential policy alignment.
• Collaborative Controls: Explore additional conversations and work product regarding collaborative controls between caregivers and family members.