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

Streaming vs. Broadcast: Study Finds That 40% of Sports Fans Go Digital-Only

Parks Associates, in partnership with InterDigital, dives deep into this shifting landscape in their new report, Streaming Live Sports: Where Opportunity Meets Complexity. Research from the study g...

White paper examines impact of smart energy management

A recent white paper from Parks Associates, created in partnership with SmartRent, examines how the use of smart energy and water systems can bring down these costs and attract residents. From the...

Sports streaming pain points revealed in report

A report from InterDigital and Parks Associates – Streaming Live Sports: Where Opportunity Meets Complexity – reveals a plethora of information about how US sports fans view content, and the pros and...

Demand response programs improving, but customers remain wary: report

Limited customer awareness remains a significant barrier to participation in residential demand response programs, Parks Associates and Resideo Grid Services said in a report released last month. ...