Providing Market Intelligence for 40 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

Smart Home: $20 Threshold, Lingering Privacy Concerns

According to Parks Associates, 50% of U.S. broadband households surveyed consider $20 or more per month for a comprehensive smart home service to be a good value. More than 26 million U.S. households...

Roku Bolsters Its Strongest Business With a $150 Million Acquisition

The bears once believed Roku's hardware business would be crushed by rivals like Alphabet's Google Chromecast, Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Fire TV, and Apple TV. Yet Roku consistently remains the most popu...

YouTube TV Goes Live in Google’s Biggest Swipe at Comcast Yet

The name YouTube alone carries weight as a signifier of people’s viewing habits migrating online. And for networks taking part in YouTube TV’s launch, that could make coming aboard the service seem li...

Roku Is a Must-Have for New Streaming Services

It's no surprise to see Apple TV+ coming to Roku. The Roku platform dominates the U.S. market, powering 41 million over-the-top devices and smart TVs, trouncing its next closest competitor with 36% gr...