Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Buying a home? Sellers may use cameras, microphones to spy on house hunters

About 9.4 million U.S. homes, or 7.4% of the total, are equipped with Wi-Fi enabled cameras and mics, says Brad Russell, research director for Parks Associates, a consumer technology research firm. As many as 11 million or so have similar but more limited set-ups trained on the doorstep or outside the house, or embedded in a light fixture, Russell says. That means up to 13% of homes have at least one Wi-Fi camera and mic. The cameras often are visible but can be hidden in stuffed animals, like a “nanny cam,” or concealed in bookshelves. This Web-enabled do-it-yourself home surveillance market didn’t even exist five years ago, Russell says.

From the article "Buying a home? Sellers may use cameras, microphones to spy on house hunters" by Paul Davidson.

Previously In The News

Finally: Every Baseball Team’s Sports Network Is Available On At Least One Streaming Service

As YouTube TV’s recent rate hike shows, these services themselves are not immune to rising programming costs. And the same traits that make streaming much less customer-hostile than cable or satellite...

Netflix Earnings Preview: Is Streaming Video Giant Still Snagging New Subscribers?

On top of that, the industry churn rate—a metric used to reflect cancelled subscriptions to streaming services overall—shot up 41% in Q1, the most recent statistic available, as consumers experimented...

Amazon's Alexa Speaks To The Connected Home

The Amazon Echo (more commonly known as “Alexa” based on the keyword voice command that triggers the female-sounding response) came on the market in November of 2014 to generally positive acclaim. The...

Cincinnati Bell Scales Local Call Center To 300 agents To Address Growing Fioptics Base

The adoption of smart home devices reflects the overall Internet of Things (IoT) trend. A recent Parks Associates study revealed that in homes with a broadband connection, 26% now own a smart home dev...