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

EV Battery & Charging News: Parks Associates, Berger, Electrify America, Toyota, Blue Bird, Cummins, Sakuu, SK, bp Pulse, VW, QuantumScape & Panasonic Energy

New research from Parks Associates’ consumer study of 8,000 US internet households finds electric vehicle (EV) ownership has seen a slight decline, with 5%, or six million internet households, reporti...

Parks: Economics challenge household finances – and the entertainment industry

Streaming, meanwhile, is the leading choice for video entertainment today; today, 88% of US internet households subscribe to at least one OTT service, according to Parks Associates' most recent Video...

SVOD Success With Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Active Users

A recent study by Parks Associates shows that 76% of U.S. households have at least one video streaming service, and according to nScreenMedia, the average subscriber has more than 3 services. That sai...

Parks Associates Research Finds 28% of Employees Use AI for Professional Needs

Research featured in Parks Associates’ new Smart Home and Security Tracker reveals 28% of full-time employees and business owners use artificial intelligence (AI) applications for their professional n...