
A new survey of 2,000 US consumers conducted by enterprise technology provider Ooma shows that despite a spike in interest from consumers for smart home devices, consumers still have privacy and security concerns about smart home products reports Nicholas Shields for Business Insider.
Nearly half of US consumers (48%) intend to buy at least one smart home device in 2018, a 66% rise year-over-year (YoY), according to Parks Associates. But, 87% of respondents aren't comfortable with in-home delivery services like Amazon Key. In addition, 88% feel negatively about companies using their personal data to figure out when they are likely to be home, potentially in order to time deliveries so they don't miss their customers.
Smart home providers will need to prioritize security and privacy to catalyze mass adoption of their products, but this won't come without challenges. The data shows consumers don't want smart home companies spying on them, but do want them to help prevent harmful intruders by monitoring the whole home, which they could do through encrypting or deleting their users' home data shortly after it's captured. However, even if providers encrypt or delete this data, they'll still need to convince their customers that they're doing this effectively. That will likely be challenging, given users' already prevalent privacy concerns.
Read More