ISL recently polled consumers about their attitudes towards product safety for traditional, physical consumer goods versus internet-connected products, including websites, mobile apps, connected home and a variety of other technologies. The key research question was whether consumers held the two classes of products to different standards when it comes to product safety.
The findings affirmed the hypothesis that, while product safety was unilaterally important to consumers, they did have a different standard for internet-connected products, which they viewed to be less capable of harm than consumer products. Consumers also seemed to believe they were both more capable and more responsible for their own safety when using internet-connected products.