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

mHealth Study: Caregivers Want Medication Management Help

A study by Parks Associates finds that 11 percent of today’s caregivers are using mHealth tools that feature medication lists and reminders. However, that same study found that 27 percent of caregiver...

Augmented Reality is Redefining Remote Technical Support

What does all of this mean for your business, customer support agents, and your clients? The innovation that is happening with visual and augmented support is still just beginning, but when you look a...

Selling Smart: Xfinity Home Rolls Out Its Own Connected-Home Products

Herscovici grins as he throws out that shock line, "but we certainly understand the frustration people feel when other product-support operators pass the buck, claim, 'It's not our problem.' The buck...

Roku Posts More Stellar Results In Q2 As Stock Price Continues To Surge

its earnings release, Roku cited data from Kantar Milward Brown anointing it the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the U.S. by hours streamed. According to a survey by Strategy Analytics, the Roku operat...