As more devices become connected in the home, consumers may, for a price, be willing to share some of the data being generated by those devices.
While that price may be financial through discounted utility bills, U.S. households also are interested in sharing data for services, according to new research from Parks Associates.
More than a quarter (27%) of households said they would share data from their smart products to automatically register for warranties and check warranty coverage and nearly as many (26%) said they would share data for updates and improvements to their devices.
“Data can be used as an alternate currency in the IoT, and consumers are willing to exchange that data for support,” said Patrice Samuels, senior research analyst at Parks.
“Manufacturers need to explore alternate methods of monetization and part of that task requires making the most of the data generated by smart home devices,” Samuels said.
There seems to be high interest in receiving discounts for data, although the willingness to do so may be declining.
In mid-2016, another study from Parks Associates found that more than 70% of U.S. households would share their smart home product data with utility companies for a discount, as the IoT Daily reported at the time (Consumers Look For New Value In Smart Home Products).
A similar recent study from Parks Associates found that about half (51%) of U.S. households say they would share data for discounts, as the IoT Daily recently reported (51% Would Trade Smart Home Device Data For Cost Savings).
Those two studies vary slightly, since the first asked about smart products in general and the second focused specifically on smart thermostats.
However, another study by Vanson Bourne for Intel found that almost half (45%) of U.S. consumers would share smart home data about their habits to receive money.
On the discounts side, the top three expenses consumers would share data for discounts on included heating (58%), gas and electric (55%) and water (34%), according to that study.
