Regulation, Power, and the Compliance 1 Paradox: A Longitudinal Study of Smart Homes

Abstract

Smart home technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in domestic environments, yet their implications for power, privacy, and inequality remain insufficiently understood, particularly in non-Western contexts. This paper presents a longitudinal socio-technical study of smart home adoption in Jordan, examining how cultural norms, regulatory frameworks, and everyday technological practices shape domestic power dynamics. Building on our 2022 study, we employ a two-phase grounded theory approach comprising (1) a secondary analysis of 30 interviews and (2) 28 new interviews conducted in 2025 with returning and new participants, including household members, domestic workers, policymakers, and civil society advocates. This design provides a rare longitudinal perspective on how regulatory and technological change reshapes domestic surveillance practices. Our findings reveal a compliance paradox: although Jordan's 2023 Data Protection Law has increased privacy awareness, it also enables new forms of exploitation by leaving domestic contexts largely outside its scope. We identify three dynamics: (1) the normalization of passive surveillance through convenience and legal compliance; (2) regulatory ambiguity that shifts responsibility to households, reinforcing existing hierarchies; and (3) constrained resistance among domestic workers facing intensified monitoring. We contribute a longitudinal account of how privacy regulation is appropriated within socio-cultural systems to reproduce existing inequalities. We conclude by identifying four intervention spaces across design, policy, and advocacy, emphasizing the need for contextually grounded approaches to privacy governance in smart home ecosystems.