SAN DIEGO, March 5, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — – Internet Safety Labs, a nonprofit technology product safety watchdog, today released a new report, “Consumer Attitudes Toward Product Safety: Physical Consumer Goods.” and Internet Connectivity Products. The findings of this study show that although product safety is overwhelmingly important to consumers and they recognize that there are privacy risks associated with Internet-connected products, It has become clear that they are not aware of the collateral damage associated with their services. When it comes to product safety, there is a double standard among consumers when it comes to connected and unconnected products.
Many consumers see a causal relationship between personal and social harm, such as physical, emotional, reputational, and financial harm, and the systemic loss of privacy associated with connected products and services. You don’t seem to notice. This significant disconnect points to the need for significant educational efforts to encourage people to look beyond “privacy risks” and “data breaches” and consider the broader implications of today’s technology.
Additional key findings:
- Slightly fewer consumers (86.2% of survey respondents) say product safety is important to them for connected products compared to physical consumer products (96.8%).
- People think of clothes, furniture, and food as: the safest consumer goods. Cleaning supplies, automotive, and personal care products. Even if only slightly safety consumer goods.
- As Internet-connected products, people perceive e-books, smart TVs, and health devices as: the safestWebsites, Smart Cars, Smart Homes (mobile apps are right behind) Even if only slightly safety.
- Even if survey respondents did not rate the mobile app the highest score. not the safest Optionally, the consumer can more App security is more important than other Internet-connected products. People may think that app stores make apps less risky. This discovery supports her ISL mission to provide safety labels for all mobile apps. (https://appmicroscope.org).
- Consumers often associate the following risks with Internet-connected products:
- automated decision making
- technology addiction
- Sharing/Sale of Personal Data by Third Parties.
- People were slightly more likely to hold companies/manufacturers responsible for the safety of consumer products than connected products.
- Consumers have become more willing to accept responsibility for the safety of complex technologies. Internet Safety Labs (ISL) finds this interesting because there are objectively fewer resources to help people understand the safety risks of internet-connected products.
- Despite these findings, the majority (85.7%) of those surveyed believe that their companies: should Perform product safety testing of internet-connected products. Almost 40% of respondents believe that companies: already Perform product safety testing (this does not apply to most mobile apps or websites).
“We were interested in understanding why consumers do not hold Internet-based technologies to the same product safety standards as traditional consumer products. This study revealed the truth behind mass data collection. It has become clear that consumers are unaware of the risks involved,” said Lisa LeVasseur, Executive Director of Internet Safety Labs. “We were surprised by the willingness of consumers to accept responsibility for product safety for virtually any connected product.”
“Consumer Attitudes Toward Product Safety: Physical Consumer Goods and Connected Products” was funded with support from the Internet Society Foundation and leveraged gender and age balances from the U.S. Census. A total of 882 survey participants participated. Respondents were between 18 and 60 years old.
Internet Safety Labs invites professionals, business leaders, and individuals interested in advancing standards for software product safety and ethical Internet practices to visit our website to learn more about how they can work with ISL. please.
About Internet Safety Lab
Internet Safety Labs is a 501(c)(3) non-profit technology product safety watchdog organization that is constantly on the side of consumers and their safety. Through standards development, product research, product auditing, and policy advocacy, we work to ensure the security of software products. We believe it’s time for software and software-driven products to be tested with the same rigorous safety that we apply to all physical products in our lives. For more information, please visit https://internetsafetylabs.org/.
Spokesperson:
Sharlyn Rijos-Altman
Montner Tech PR
srijos@montner.com
