While I’m eager to watch the unfolding evolution of smart home technologies, with mind-blowing features like voice-enabled technology, machine learning, virtual reality, location services, and demand response, I offer fair warning: the sector needs to address the elephant in the room—security—before it can truly scale and mature.

According to a survey conducted by Parks Associates of 10,000 broadband households, almost 50% rank data security and privacy as their top concerns when it comes to connecting devices to the Internet. 40% of the respondents indicated that they experienced a privacy or security problem with a connected device in the past year (most commonly viruses and malware.)

From the article "Smart Home Evolution: Elephant in the Room" by Sara Gutterman.