Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Network Security: Hacking Fears Could Scare Consumers Away from Smart-Home Devices

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.

Previously In The News

OTT Video Service Subscriptions Increase in Q1 According to Parks Associates

OTT video service subscriptions are increasing a year after the start of the global pandemic. Parks Associates’ latest research of 10,000 US broadband households finds 82 percent of U.S. broadband hou...

Study Explains Why Facebook Needs To Work Faster To Stop The Flow Of Fake News

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published his manifesto outlining the company’s ongoing commitment to filter out false news and hoaxes without undermining free speech, the findings from a new study by...

Report: Viewers Say Churn is Based on Lack of New, Original Content

According to Parks Associates, it only gets worse from here. In its 2022 “OTT Streaming Trends to Watch” white paper, their data shows that the average churn rate was 40% in 2020. Right now, the avera...

Alexa Poised To Play A Bigger Role This Amazon Prime Day

In a press release, Amazon singles out “voice shopping” more “Alexa-exclusive deals” for members with an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Amazon Tap, compatible Fire TV or Fire tablet. “Amazon is...