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 companies to see $12.5B in lost revenue by 2024 due to piracy, password sharing: report

The analysis, compiled “360 Deep Dive: Account Sharing and Digital Piracy” by Park Associates, a research and consulting company that specializes in technology, found the amount of revenue lost will i...

What’s in Your Wallet: Should You Get the Apple Credit Card?—Data Sheet

The war for the couch potato. The latest survey of Internet video boxes found Roku in command, with 39% of the market, and Amazon in second, with 30%. That left Apple and Google fighting over a shrink...

Wall Street isn’t sure Roku can lead cord cutters to the promised land

One of the secrets of Roku's success has been its expansion beyond its roots as a set top box maker (a term the company tries to avoid). To do this, Roku CEO Anthony Wood built a loyal customer follow...

Internet connections to Smart TVs grow as streaming options increase

Smart TVs are becoming more of a norm now than ever before as a younger generation of Americans continues to rely more on streaming services than traditional television, according to research from Par...