Troubadour Research & Consulting’s WearablesResearch.com has published new survey data indicating a considerable willingness among consumers to share biometric data collected from wearable devices.
This edition of the firm’s quarterly survey consulted 1,194 US adults who have broadband internet access at home. It found that while 56 percent of those surveyed harbored concerns about how a health insurance company would use their biometric data, 43 percent of respondents said they would be willing to share the data with such companies in exchange for discounts. As Troubadour Research CEO Michael LaColla explained in a statement, the latter was a surprising result given that “there are segments in the population who are defined by their concerns about data privacy.”
The result echoes the findings of a recent international survey concerning the smart home, which found 54 percent of its respondents indicating that they would be willing to share smart home data with private companies for compensation; together, the results may suggest a means by which companies could market increasing connectivity to consumers, and may also indicate a sense of inevitability among some consumers with respect to relinquishing some data privacy in an increasingly connected world.
Also echoing the smart home survey is WearablesResearch.com’s finding of considerable enthusiasm for the technology in question, with 24 percent of its survey respondents reporting that they are already in possession of at least one wearable device, and 63 percent expressing a belief that wearables can improve users’ health and fitness. That enthusiasm appears to track with the growth predicted for the wearables market going forward.
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May 12, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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