In Deloitte's new 2017 Global Mobile Consumer Survey, the company notes that "connected home systems—a category that includes home security, thermostats, and lighting—continue to lag behind other connected devices such as entertainment systems and connected vehicles," which the report attributes to "concerns about security and privacy."
The survey found "more than 40 percent of
respondents agree that smart home technology reveals too much
about their personal lives and nearly 40 percent worry that usage
can be tracked. In addition, less than one in five consumers believe
they are very well informed about the security risks associated with
connected home devices; and nearly 40 percent believe they are not
properly informed at all."
This may be the best news about the IoT ever published.
Consumers continue to express concerns about security and
privacy captured in the data regarding the risks they perceive with
IoT, mPayments, and autonomous vehicles. That said, consumers
have been more open to signing agreements with mobile app and
service providers—91 percent willingly accept legal terms and
conditions without reading them before installing apps, registering
Wi-Fi hotspots, accepting updates, and signing on to online services
such as video streaming. For ages 18 to 34, the rate of acceptance
of terms and conditions, without reading them, reaches 97 percent.
The language of the vast majority of terms and conditions is
understandably too complex for many. Given the absence of a
choice, consumers don't consider these as a barrier to purchasing
and accepting many forms of new technology.It is important to underscore the fact that more than 80 percent of
consumers believe that companies use their personal data. What's
more, 78 percent believe that their personal data is shared with
third parties. Still, there's a willingness by consumers to share some
personal online data, such as their name or email address (by more
than 58 percent). But they are far less willing to share health metrics
using a phone or wearable (just seven percent). Only 13 percent say
they never share personal information such as name, email address,
phone number, photos, contact list, browsing activity, purchase
history, and health metrics.
2017 Global Mobile Consumer Survey: US edition [Deloitte]
(Image: Cryteria, CC-BY)
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