The rising occurrence of high-profile security hacks and privacy breaches, as well as being personally victimized, are contributing to ever-increasing consumer anxiety about smart home devices and platforms, according to new research.
Parks Associates’ latest quarterly survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households found that almost half of consumers rank data security and privacy issues as their greatest concerns about connecting devices to the Internet, compared to other problems they may encounter, such as with tech support. Forty percent of the respondents say they have experienced a privacy or security problem with a connected device in the past year, most commonly viruses and malware.
“Our most recent data reveals that almost half of U.S. broadband households are ‘very concerned’ [rating 6-7 on a 7-point scale] about hackers getting control of connected devices and hackers getting access to data from the device,” says Parks Associates Research Analyst Brad Russell. “In tracing trending changes on these consumer attitudes from 2014 to 2016, we find that while the total share of consumers who are ‘concerned’ [rating 5-7] has not appreciably changed, the share of those that are ‘very concerned’ has grown by 6% to 7%. Similarly, the share of consumers who are ‘not concerned [rating 1-3] has shrunk by about half.”
From the article "Network Security: Hacking Fears Could Scare Consumers Away from Smart-Home Devices" by Rodney Bosch.
40 million people are already driving cars with some connected features, most of them connecting through your smartphone. Plus, 64% of people who have a broadband connection at home want a built-in co...
Analysts and leading company executives, including Vivint Smart Home, Rovi, AT&T Digital Life, Schneider Electric, Comcast and Hewlett-Packard, all took part in panel discussions. A major highlight...
Marketing for RecycleHealth got an unexpected boost from an applicant to the digital health communication certificate program, who volunteered her design skills and did a photo shoot of donated device...
As always, timing is everything. Research published in July by Parks Associates suggests U.S. mobile carriers are shifting their focus from ARPU growth to churn management as new smartphone users beco...
