Shifting Consumer Attitudes Regarding Smart Home Security Vs. Privacy: Seeing My Goodies Vs. Taking My Goodies

With the recent attack on Twitter and others using zombified (I know, the day AFTER Halloween, right?) Smart Home devices, we figured it was time to update the world on what we have been seeing in the data regarding privacy and security.  Below is the most recent snapshot of the past two months of mentions of Security concerns versus Privacy concerns within all Smart Home related tweets.

As you can see, Security appears on average ten times more than Privacy and in the recent days, that number jumps almost to 50 times given the recent issues and concerns.  The Privacy conversations focus mainly on concerns regarding the “bad guys” gaining access to our personal goodies and pales in comparison fears and concerns on the Security side where the focus until recently was on foul folks taking action that knowledge. Privacy peaked with a warning from Eric Snowden and others on the privacy issues with the Internet of Things and Smart Home.  BBC coverage of how Smart Home devices could become a Weapon of Mass Disruption drove recent peaks regarding security.  This marks a shift in the Smart Home security conversation from one where consumers were worried about criminals and other ne’er do wells taking action based on knowledge of their home to one where the forecasted billions of Smart Home devices become members of botnets bent on destruction and thievery.

Across IoT and Smart Home, Security continues to loom as an issue that the market is still struggling for solutions for.  Given the clash of ecosystems also happening (Nest/Google vs. Apple Home vs. Amazon vs. Vivint vs. Others), consumers are at a lost as to who they can rely on to secure their home against threats and now keep their home from threatening others.  At Argus Insights, we are tracking this on a real time basis.  Our new Argus Analyzer platform puts these tools in your hands, a data scientist in a box, so you can focus on the messages that are moving the market.  Check it out here!