If you suffer from a debilitating health problem, how willing are you to give up a certain amount of privacy so that you can maintain your independence? This is essentially the question that the authors ask in this interesting study.

Beach et al. study three groups: the youngest, identified as baby boomers, are between the ages of 45 and 64; the second group consists of people between 65 and 74 years old; and the third group consists of people 75 and older. The authors find that an increase in disability leads to a respondent’s willingness to surrender a certain amount of privacy, so that the person can continue to live independently.

Respondents were recruited via the Internet. Implicitly, this group may have a higher socioeconomic standing and a better understanding of technology than people who do not own a computer. Also, the study focuses on attitudes, not behavior. People may be predisposed to say that they would be willing to allow technological monitoring of their daily activities if they were allowed to live independently, but this is different from the actual behavior, when people are living independently and are aware of the constant monitoring of their daily activities through sensors or cameras.

The authors conclude: “Ultimately, such [monitoring] technology will need to be designed in ways that allow individual autonomy and control in deciding when, with whom, and how personal health information may be shared.” Their results suggest the need for a larger study, with a more carefully drawn sample. Within these limitations, Beach et al. demonstrate small but statistically significant support for their hypothesis that an increase in disability can result in a willingness to allow an increase in monitoring of daily activities.