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

Amazon developing a free, ad-supported video news app for Fire TV, report says

Roku is the leader in streaming services with 37 percent of the market. But Amazon has been gaining ground and claimed 28 percent in 2018, according to research firm Parks Associates. Amazon may be...

Analysis: The impact of Google Stadia shutdown on Amazon, Xbox, and other cloud gaming initiatives

Research firm Parks Associates released a report Monday morning showing that at least 35 million American households would be interested in picking up a cloud gaming service at a roughly $9.99/month p...

Bloomberg Attacks Apple TV As Failing To Be "A Groundbreaking, iPhone-Caliber Product"

According to U.S. market research published by Parks Associates last summer, Amazon media player products narrowly out-shipped Apple TV (for a 22 vs 20 percent share of the market) in 2015, but that a...

Parks Associates: 29% of Consumers Get Most of their News from Social Media Platforms like Facebook and Twitter

PRESS RELEASE: New consumer research from Parks Associates reveals 29% of U.S. broadband households get most of their news from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. According to 360 View:...