75 Percent Expect Smart Homes to Improve Quality of Life, but 66 Percent
Still Very Concerned About Cybersecurity
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates – April 06, 2016 – A majority of respondents worldwide (54 percent) indicated
they might be willing to share their personal data collected from their smart
home with companies in exchange for money, and 70 percent agree that companies
should give coupons and discounts to customers in return for data about device usage,
according to a survey of global consumers sponsored by Intel Security. The
survey also found that 77 percent of respondents believe smart homes will be as
common in 2025 as smartphones are today, but 66 percent are also very concerned
about smart home data being hacked by cybercriminals.
“Smart
homes and their associated data have the potential to improve consumers’
everyday lives,” said Raj Samani, VP & CTO, EMEA at Intel Security. “The
survey shows that many individuals would be comfortable sharing that data for a
price, but they are still understandably concerned about cyber threats.
Security has to be foundational to the Internet of Things and when done right, it
can be an enabler of IoT.”
Survey
respondents were universally worried about potential security threats from
smart homes, with 92 percent expressing concern that their personal data could
be hacked by cybercriminals. Yet in a testament to innovative security, almost
as many respondents (89 percent) said that if they lived in a smart-home, they
would likely prefer to secure all their smart devices through a single
integrated security package.
Consumers were less enthusiastic about existing security
methods such as passwords, with 4 in 10 foreseeing passwords as a frustration
with smart homes, and three-quarters (75 percent) indicating they are at least
somewhat anxious about the number of passwords likely to be required to manage
smart homes. However, biometrics scored well as an alternative for accessing
smart homes. When asked to select several preferred forms of biometric
security, 54 percent opted for fingerprints, 46 percent for voice recognition
and 42 percent for eye scans.
Additional key survey findings include:
·
Compared to other
generations sampled, more Millennials indicated they might be comfortable taking money, discounts and coupons in
exchange for sharing their behavioral data from their smart home devices (63
percent for money, 44 percent for discounts and 29 percent for coupons)
·
Three-quarters (75
percent) of consumers expect to see personal benefits from living in a smart
home
·
The most commonly
considered smart devices are smart lighting (73 percent), smart kitchen
appliances (62 percent) and smart thermometers or boiler systems (60 percent)
·
Over half of
respondents expect gas and electric (57 percent) bills and heating and cooling
(55 percent) bills to be reduced in a smart home