``It sounds like automation'' -- Towards Users' Understanding of Adaptive Systems

IT-based Adaptive Systems (ITbAS) are understood as information technology artifacts capable of changing to fit different situations, environments, and users. Still, little is known on how users understand ITbAS, and which risks they associate with their use (if any). We conducted a survey with n=62 participants to discover what people know about ITbAS, whether they are aware of using them in their everyday life, and what possible risks they can imagine. We found that, even though 72.58% of our participants heard of ITbAS, only 56.5% could define them. Further, the examples the participants provided partially suggest a lack of knowledge about the full potential of ITbAS in their everyday lives. Risk-wise, the more common code was security-related (27.59% of entries), e.g., ``Data breaches,'' with privacy risks as second (18.72%), e.g., ``Profile and targeting.'' As this, our work should be seen as a first investigation into what users know about and how they understand ITbAS.