Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Survey: Consumers Prefer Keeping Wearable Device Data from Insurers

According to research firm Parks Associates, the majority of those surveyed indicated that they are not willing to share data collected from wearable devices, even if it meant receiving a discount on their health insurance premiums. In spite of this reluctance, these same consumers were willing to share data for the purpose of troubleshooting the devices themselves.

The results of the survey varied significantly by device. Forty-two percent of digital pedometer owners were willing to share data in order to receive a health insurance discount; for smartwatch owners the total was 35 percent; and for sleep-quality monitor owners it was 26 percent. Nevertheless, a solid majority of device owners was not willing to share data.

Consumers are justified in their concerns about health data privacy. The Los Angeles Times told in July of a security breach in October 2014 where hackers compromised UCLA Health Systems’ computer network, putting 4.5 million patients’ sensitive data at risk. What was troubling about the incident was that it took nearly seven months from the time suspicious activity was discovered in October, to May 5, which is when investigators determined the system was hacked. Additionally troubling was that the data was not even encrypted.

From the article "Survey: Consumers Prefer Keeping Wearable Device Data from Insurers" by Christopher Mohr.

Previously In The News

Spanish Viewers Prefer Online Video To Pay TV: Study

“First-time adoption of pay TV is up among Spanish broadband households as is the penetration of pay TV overall. The Spanish pay-TV market in general has a very active, cost-conscious base of subscrib...

Cutting the cord: 59% of Americans have canceled cable TV, signaling the dominance of streaming giants Netflix, Hulu and Amazon

Netflix is also preparing to crackdown on illegal account sharing via new artificial intelligence software, which will be able to analyze which users are logged in and then flag shared accounts. Th...

19% Of US Broadband Households Cancelled An OTT Video Service In 12 Months

Parks Associates has announced that the churn rate for OTT video services is 19% of US broadband households, indicating roughly one in five households have cancelled an OTT service in the past 12 mont...

Parks: Netflix retains OTT top-spot in the US

“Importantly, all of these services have increased their subscriber base over the past year,” said Parks Associates. “The top five OTT services have stayed consistent, primarily through maintaining or...