Consumers don't fully trust smart home technologies

Smart home technologies are marketed to enhance your home and make life easier. However, UK consumers are not convinced that they can trust the privacy and security of these technologies, a study by WMG, University of Warwick has shown.Smart Home technology

The 'smart home' can be defined as the integration of Internet-enabled, digital devices with sensors and machine learning in the home. The aim of smart home devices is to provide enhanced entertainment services, easier management of the home, domestic chores and protection from domestic risks. They can be found in devices such as smart speakers and hubs, lighting, sensors, door locks and cameras, central heating thermostats and domestic appliances.

To better understand consumers perceptions of the desirability of the smart home, researchers from WMG and Computer Science, University of Warwick have carried out a nationally representative survey of UK consumers designed to measure adoption and acceptability, focusing on awareness, ownership, experience, trust, satisfaction and intention to use.

The article 'Trust in the smart home: Findings from a nationally representative survey in the UK' published in the top journal PLOS ONE reveals their results, with the main finding that the businesses proposal of added meaning and value when adopting the smart home have not yet achieved closure from consumers, as they have highlighted concern for risks to privacy and security.

Researchers sent 2101 participants a survey, with questions to assess:

- Awareness of the Internet of Things (IoT)

- Current ownership of smart home devices

- Experiences of their use of smart home devices

- Trust in the reliability and competence of the devices

- Trust in privacy

- Trust in security

- Satisfaction and intention to use the devices in the future, and intention to recommend it to others

The findings suggest consumers had anxiety about the likelihood of a security incident, as overall people tend to mildlySmart home tehnology agree that they are likely to risk privacy as well as security breach when using smart home devices, in other words they are unconvinced that their privacy and security will not be at risk when they use smart home devices.

It also emerged that when asked to evaluate the impact of a privacy breach people tend to disagree that its impact will be low, suggesting they expect the impact of a privacy breach to be significant. This emerges as a prominent factor influencing whether or not they would adopt smart home technology, furthermore making it less likely.

Other interesting results highlight:

- More females than males have adopted smart home devices over the last year, possibly as they tend to run the house and find the technology helpful

- Young people ages 18-24) were the earliest adopters of smart home technology, however older people (ages 65+) also adopted it early, possibly as they have more disposable income and less responsibilities -- e.g. no mortgage, no dependent children

- People aged 65 and over are less willing to use smart home devices in case of unauthorised data collection compared to younger people, indicating younger people are less aware of privacy breaches

- Less well-educated people are the least interested in using smart home devices in the future, and that these might constitute market segments that will be lost to smart home adoption, unless their concerns are specifically addressed and targeted by policymakers and businesses.

Dr Sara Cannizzaro, from WMG, University of Warwick comments:Dr Sara Cannizzaro, WMG, University of Warwick: "Our study underlines how businesses and policymakers will need to work together to act on the sociotechnical affordances of smart home technology in order to increase consumers' trust. This intervention is necessary if barriers to adoption and acceptability of the smart home are to be addressed now and in the future.

"Proof of cybersecurity and low risk to privacy breaches will be key in smart home technology companies persuading a number of consumers to invest in their technology."

Professor Rob Procter, from the Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, adds:Professor Rob Procter, Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick: "Businesses are still actively promoting positive visions of what the smart home means for consumers (e.g., convenience, economy, home security)... However, at the same time, as we see from our survey results, consumers are actively comparing their interactional experiences against these visions and are coming up with different interpretations and meanings from those that business is trying to promote."

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Mainstream, the avant-garde and ground-breaking space that Gabriel Bautista has created for Home Decor

You already know that to try to encourage this confinement, in addition to news related to the tasks of cleaning and order, we also want to show you themes beautiful to forget a little of this madness that we are living. Nice houses, trends, wallpapers, beautiful… and of course, some of the spaces of Home Decor.

Because even though the building of Velazquez had to close their doors because of the health crisis, the spaces are still there, intact, until the day that you pass all this and we can re-iterate through these rooms which have been designed with so much care and affection by some of the most prominent interior designers in this country.

Today, we want to tell you about Mainstream, the space created by JOINT Design, the study created by Gabriel Bautista. A space of entertainment created from the luxury, the art and the culture of the masses. The culture Mainstream talk of how to generate the blockbuster, the blockbuster, britney spears, Rosalia, and other major hits that reach all corners of the planet. The design and luxury are cherished by all of the hand of the great houses of ceramics, glassware and furniture Italian.

A luxury that is part of the base material. The tiles in a large format of Emil Groupthe impressive Calacatta Renoir, invades the stay from the wall to the ground, generating a massive match book a visual effect that embraces space and encompassed by a marble base in white and black the whole, to become the foundation of the concept.

The culture Mainstream, and distributed through cinema and television, from the black-and-white, up to currently more technological mechanisms of Hagerpassing by the renewal of the design in Lladroalso in black-and-white. The RGB can be seen in the paint a special Valentine, in a deep greenalong with an impressive sofa in blue velvet, and as part star a red roof of Aistec.

Also designed by the studio ANTRUM Design for this space, is a Ecopanel conceived in geometric forms to dampen the sound of the audio-visual that can be played back, as well as being a piece that is respectful of the environment, because it is made with plastic from recycled bottles.

 

The rest of the elements make up a vision of different objects that at some time in the culture and the design have been mainstream, have reached the masses. The tassels and braided natural lamp Peralta, the poto as the plant most Kitsch, the tanks hanging from ropes from esparto grass weave, live with the pop art geometric wallpaper Styledition, designed especially for the space.

Geometries that, combined with the mirrors, leads to a art installation of Op-art effect free-fall, including that it has become one of the great attractions of this edition of Casa Decor. The years of psychedelia, LSD and other fashions of that and other eras. A facility to which you access through a hallway that contains one of the largest technical revolutions in the installation of floors porcelanicos, the Pave-and-Go of Emil Group is a ceramic pre-installed in a plastic plate tongue and groove.

This base machiembrada allows you to take the mortar, saving water and material, and placed 10 times faster than any tiles. Economy of means, personnel and fewer natural resources to the carrying out of any installation in a record time.

The decoration of the Mainstream, supported by both size of Emil Group, closes with a waitress designed for the study, and is based on the forms of the ArtDecoand the colors of the group Memphis, decorating trends and styles that flooded the art, design and fashion of their times. A bar furniture that sustains the incredible luxury of Vistalegre and its Crystalwarewith famous spirits such as the great Licor 43 Spanish, as an element of Kitsch in the culture of Spanish bars.

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