BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte, in conjunction with the opinion research institute TNS Emnid, realized a report called Consumer Data Trust Report. This interesting documents, that concerns consumers in Germany and Austria, shows an important matter about products and apps connected in the Internet of Things: privacy and security. According with the report, consumers tend to examine digital services very closely with regard to data protection and data security, but are nevertheless willing to provide personal data for individual added value. The internet of things is on the advance: digitization is networking industries and products. A host of new opportunities are also emerging in the home appliance sector to make everyday life more convenient. Yet the basis for all ideas for the connected home and their added value is data. And this is where tension arises: on one hand, consumers see these digital opportunities as an asset they no longer want to do without. On the other, there is great concern about becoming “transparent consumers” through using such offers. The study carried out in Germany and Austria basically shows that the population is receptive to technical innovations. More than half of those surveyed describe themselves as technophiles, and more than a third can already envisage using networked home appliances. “We take the wishes and concerns of consumers with regard to handling data from networked home appliances very seriously, since we can only effectively exploit the potential of the new technologies on the basis of consumer trust,” explains Karsten Ottenberg, Chairman and CEO of BSH. “We not only have to allow the security of our networking technologies to be checked continuously by independent bodies, but also need to work on creating transparency and dispelling mistrust by engaging with consumers. Trust in our brands will play an important part in this.”
