Mitigating the elderly's privacy concerns when making use of Mobile Monitoring and Care systems

South Africa's ageing population is increasing. The elderly prefer to live independently for as long as possible in their own homes. Mobile Monitoring and Care systems (MMCs) are enabling the elderly to live independently while supporting their well-being in the comfort of their homes. However, literature has however shown that the elderly are not willing to make use of MMCs in their homes due to privacy concerns. The purpose of this paper is then to investigate the privacy concerns of the elderly towards the use of MMCs in their home environment. The study makes use of a qualitative, inductive approach. The study found that there are a variety of factors that influences the elderly's privacy concerns to make use of MMCs The study therefore recommends the following: to introduce appropriate privacy legislation, to implement and communicate fair information practices in the MMC industry, raising awareness about the benefits of MMCs among the elderly, developing inconspicuous and unobtrusive MMC technologies and educating the elderly about the privacy controls of MMC devices.