Consumer familiarity with video doorbells grew 57 percent in 2018, and the devices have the fourth-highest adoption rate among smart home products in the U.S. market, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. A quarter of broadband households plan to buy a smart video doorbell in the next 12 months, said analyst Patrice Samuels. A competitive market -- energized by new products from Ring, SimpliSafe and Netatmo late last year and new products from others -- will drive sales of 4 million units this year, said Parks. It predicts a 5 million-unit market by 2023.
NTIA plans a multistakeholder meeting on software component transparency, 10 a.m. April 11 at the American Institute of Architects, the agency said in Monday's Federal Register (see 1807190048).
The global market for smart home devices will grow 26.9 percent to 832.7 million shipments in 2019, IDC projected Friday, increasing through 2023 to 1.6 billion devices as consumers adopt multiple devices and availability of products and services increases. Last year was about “getting products into consumers’ homes,” led by Amazon and Google with low-cost smart speakers and bundles across device categories, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. This year, industry will focus on “tying the various devices together” to create a more cohesive experience and “layering in additional services,” he said. Amazon and Google will dominate the smart home market, but Apple is expected to gain traction, said IDC. Samsung “is worth watching” as its products extend into more categories, and the company continues to invest in Bixby and Tizen, said analysts. An important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated in the home, said analyst Ramon Llamas. "Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience,” Llamas said, noting the experience consumers have with smart speakers today “will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats, and all sorts of video entertainment."
Thirty-one percent of U.S. broadband homes have a smart speaker and more than a quarter of them use the voice assistants to control a smart device, said Parks Associates Thursday. Voice control, and its promise to simplify the user experience, could help overcome consumer confusion that has inhibited smart home adoption, said analyst Brad Russell.
Facebook violated the Fair Housing Act by “encouraging, enabling and causing housing discrimination” through its advertising platform, the Department of Housing and Urban Development alleged Thursday. Stemming from Secretary Ben Carson’s August complaint, HUD said the platform “unlawfully discriminates based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex, and disability” by limiting viewership of housing-related ads. The platform “mines extensive data” to determine which users can views certain ads. “Using a computer to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone’s face,” Carson said. A U.S. administrative law judge is expected to decide the charge, unless either side opts for a court. The company faces damages related to discrimination, attorney fees, public interest fines and punitive damages. “We're surprised by HUD's decision, as we've been working with them to address their concerns and have taken significant steps to prevent ads discrimination,” a company spokesperson said. “While we were eager to find a solution, HUD insisted on access to sensitive information -- like user data -- without adequate safeguards.” The company cited agreements with the National Fair Housing Alliance, American Civil Liberties Union and others for changing housing, credit and employment ads. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged an end to such practices, tweeting, “Our personal info is being used in harmful ways that affect Americans’ wellbeing and livelihood -- from housing to employment.”
Demand for wired home networking devices is rising, ABI Research reported Wednesday. Increasing household device counts and multimedia and smart home applications drive a need for high data throughput, and ABI predicts Multimedia over Coax Alliance 2.5 or G.hn specification network node shipments will reach 8 million units this year. Wi-Fi has high penetration because of convenience, and newer standards and mesh networking have improved Wi-Fi home coverage, but wired connectivity can improve stability and throughput, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Live video streaming, gaming and virtual reality may boost demand for reliable coverage of home networks, said the analyst, and service providers should integrate wired network devices with Wi-Fi.
Posts related to and supporting “white nationalism and separatism” are banned from Facebook and Instagram starting next week, Facebook announced Wednesday. Broader concepts of nationalism and separatism have been allowed, unlike white supremacy, because of the relation to acceptable concepts like American pride and Basque separatism, it said. But experts from civil society and academics convinced the company that “white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.” That's confirmed by the platform’s examination of hate figures and organizations, it said. A white supremacist's alleged mass shooting in New Zealand spurred criticism about tech company content moderation (see 1903110019).
NPD expects low single-digit percentage sales growth for U.S. consumer technology through 2021. Dollar sales growth is projected to slip to 2 percent this year, to a total $94 billion, vs. 3 percent growth from 2017 to 2018. Wireless headphones and smart home devices will lead growth categories, adding $3 billion vs. 2018, the researcher forecast Tuesday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency exposed 2.3 million disaster survivors to increased risk of identity theft and fraud by sharing their personal data, including banking information, with a displacement contractor, the Office of Inspector General said, which FEMA acknowledged Friday. FEMA shared information it wasn't required to disclose, including electronic funds transfer and bank transit numbers of victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and the 2017 California wildfires. FEMA violated the 1974 Privacy Act and Department of Homeland Security policy, the report said. There’s no evidence to suggest data was misused, and the contractor is cooperating to remove the unnecessary data, FEMA said Friday.
The Supreme Court denied an appeal from Amazon online retailer Zappos, allowing a class-action lawsuit about a breach that exposed some 24 million customers’ personal data to proceed. Some 20 Zappos customers claimed data misuse due to the 2012 breach. Industry groups argued those customers can’t prove actual harm or “substantial risk.” Zappos attempted to appeal a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision stating the lawsuit should proceed because the customers faced substantial risks of identity theft and fraud. Amazon didn’t comment.