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

Who's Your Buddy? The Evolution of OTT Video Partnerships

Due to the increased competition and number of partnerships, OTT video service penetration will increase by more than 85 million households from 2017 through 2022, Parks Associates has estimated, and...

Despite Emmys, Road Ahead Is Bumpy for Streaming Services

"Broadband providers are more likely to manage traffic for the most popular video streaming sites, such as YouTube and Netflix, because those services account for much of the traffic across their netw...

Despite Emmys, Road Ahead Is Bumpy for Streaming Services

Throttling connections is simply one of those measures. "Broadband providers are more likely to manage traffic for the most popular video streaming sites, such as YouTube and Netflix, because those...

ULE Calls U.S., Industrial Markets

The standard is used in about 580 million homes worldwide if you include cordless phones. About 50 million units are in Europe, including gateways and VoIP boxes, according to Brad Russell, a market r...