  The increasingly widespread use of 'smart' devices has raised multifarious
ethical concerns regarding their use in domestic spaces. Previous work
examining such ethical dimensions has typically either involved empirical
studies of concerns raised by specific devices and use contexts, or
alternatively expounded on abstract concepts like autonomy, privacy or trust in
relation to 'smart homes' in general. This paper attempts to bridge these
approaches by asking what features of smart devices users consider as rendering
them 'smart' and how these relate to ethical concerns. Through a multimethod
investigation including surveys with smart device users (n=120) and
semi-structured interviews (n=15), we identify and describe eight types of
smartness and explore how they engender a variety of ethical concerns including
privacy, autonomy, and disruption of the social order. We argue that this
middle ground, between concerns arising from particular devices and more
abstract ethical concepts, can better anticipate potential ethical concerns
regarding smart devices.
