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

Share A Netflix Password, Go To Jail?

According to a study done by Parks Associates in 2015, 57% of U.S. households access an over-the-top video account, meaning streaming services like Netflix, Hulu or HBO Go, but 11% of Netflix subscrib...

How Apple’s Purchase Of Startup Reveals Health Data Strategy

Harry Wang, senior research director for Parks Associates says that Apple is “known to be searching for the next $100 billion opportunity, and the gigantic healthcare industry is ripe for technology d...

Opportunities abound in video storage as DIY camera installs take off

"Sales of networked cameras will reach seven million units in 2019," said Dina Abdelrazik, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. "Retailers like Best Buy have helped boost the profile of this product cate...

YouTube Red Climbs the List of Top Ten OTT Platforms

In the world of OTT platforms there is no question that in the US the top 3 services are Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. But where does streaming services like HBO, SlingTV, and Starz fall into the mix? To...