Roughly one-fourth of U.S. broadband homes are willing to exchange data from a smart home product for tech support benefits, said a Parks Associates blog post Tuesday. "Data can be used as an alternate currency in the IoT, and consumers are willing to exchange that data for support" such as warranty information, product updates or product tips, said analyst Patrice Samuels. Some 26 percent of consumers surveyed said they're willing to share data for product updates or improvements, said Samuels.

Results from an Intel survey on family dynamics in connected homes say 76 percent of parents in select regions around the world allow their children to take an internet-connected device to bed, and just 23 percent of parents said they used software to monitor their children’s internet activity. Some 35 percent of parents said they monitored children’s device usage by keeping the devices in their possession, allowing children to use them only when the parents are around, it said Tuesday. Four in five parents said they're concerned about their child potentially interacting with a social predator or cybercriminal online, and 34 percent have discovered their child visited an inappropriate website. Tips from Intel on online safety: Start conversations early, set a good example by limiting time on social networks, keep strangers out of children’s online interactions and use security software to manage and protect connected devices. Intel Security commissioned the December survey of 13,000 adults ages 18-55-plus that included respondents in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, U.K. and U.S.

D-Link is pushing back against an FTC complaint that the company's wireless routers and internet cameras were vulnerable to hackers, putting privacy at risk. In a Thursday news release, D-Link Chief Information Security Officer William Brown called the complaint "unwarranted" and said the company "will vigorously defend the security and integrity of our routers and IP cameras." In a Q&A on its website, the company said it has "a robust range of procedures to address potential security issues" in IoT devices. The company said "the complaint does not allege any breach of a D-Link Systems device. Instead, the FTC speculates that consumers were placed 'at risk' to be hacked, but fails to allege, as it must, that actual consumers suffered or are likely to suffer actual substantial injuries." The FTC voted 2-1 -- with Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen voting no -- to file the complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said an agency news release. The FTC said the California-based subsidiary of D-Link, which is headquartered in Taiwan, "failed to take steps to address well-known and easily preventable security flaws," including: "hard-coded" login credentials; a software flaw called "command injection" that could be exploited by hackers; "mishandling" a private key code; and leaving user logins unsecured on mobile devices. An FTC spokesman said Friday that Ohlhausen didn't provide further comment on her no vote.

IoT company ilumi solutions launched at CES a Bluetooth mesh network technology that will integrate audio, video and lighting products in the home. The company also bowed a bridge technology that connects its Bluetooth MeshTek technology to existing Wi-Fi networks and routers. The approach combines the secure and local network advantages of Bluetooth mesh networking with the internet connectivity and strength of Wi-Fi for handling large data volume and enabling cloud-based interoperability, said ilumi. Manufacturers that integrate MeshTek can provide smart products with no extra hardware or programming needed, said the company. Bluetooth mesh networks accommodate up to 50 devices in a local network that can be controlled by a single app, it said. The company is showing audio, video, lighting, TVs, speakers and an Optoma projector implementing the technology at CES (Booth #44744). Ilumi’s MeshTek chipsets are Bluetooth 5-ready and are due mid-year, it said. The company also is introducing an outdoor-rated LED smart lighting strip that can be used to create light patterns and an adjustable white A19 LED bulb to join its color-changing LED bulbs already in the market.

Netgear’s Orbi tri-band Wi-Fi router system ($399) is the first to incorporate Qualcomm’s tri-radio 802.11ac chipsets and Wi-Fi self-organizing network (SON) technologies, said the companies in a Wednesday news release. The combination of Orbi’s tri-band Wi-Fi and Qualcomm’s SON technology is said to deliver faster, simpler and improved Wi-Fi reliability for customers with large homes or challenging infrastructure, they said. Qualcomm’s tri-band Wi-Fi chipset uses three Wi-Fi radios to create a dedicated wireless backhaul connection between the Orbi router and Orbi satellites, and SON software simplifies the Wi-Fi set up process and optimizes the network to eliminate congestion and dead zones, they said. The result is said to be high-performance Wi-Fi in nearly every corner of the home.

FCC staff is “actively engaged in constructive conversations with all stakeholders” on set-top boxes, Chairman Tom Wheeler told House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in response to a letter questioning commission set-top efforts. The FCC is talking to “content creators, minority and independent programmers, public interest and consumer groups, device manufacturers and app developers, software security developers, and pay-TV providers of all sizes-on how to ensure that consumers have the competition and choice they deserve,” Wheeler said. Those conversations touched on “a wide range of issues,” including the pay-TV backed set-top plan, Wheeler said. “I am hopeful that these discussions will yield straight-forward, feasible and effective rules for all.”

Philips launched a motion sensor ahead of IFA for its Hue LED connected light bulbs. The $40 sensor will be sold at Amazon.com, Best Buy and MeetHue.com starting in October, said the company. Reaction time is given as half a second with average detection range of 5 meters, it said. A built-in daylight sensor ensures the lights activate only when needed, as an energy-saving feature, Philips said, and personalized settings allow users to set lighting levels.

The average North American home has more than seven broadband devices in use every day, said a report from broadband network solutions provider Sandvine based on real network usage. Six percent of households have more than 15 active devices, with smartphones and tablets on fixed Wi-Fi networks accounting for nearly 30 percent of North American fixed access traffic, it said. So-called home roaming generated 9 percent of traffic five years ago, said Sandvine. Laptops and desktop PCs now are less than a quarter of traffic on fixed access networks, it said. Game play traffic on PlayStation 4 consoles is 2.5 percent of the total traffic the console generates, with video streaming (65 percent) and game downloads (25 percent) causing most PS4 bandwidth consumption, said the report. Roku devices, at 10 percent, were the most-used set-top box, followed by Amazon Fire TV (3.9 percent) and Apple TV (3.3 percent), it said. The top-consuming Netflix device (12 percent) on one network was the operator’s branded set-top box that streams over-the-top content, it said.

Critics of the pay-TV-backed HTML5 set-top proposal prefer set-top plans that violate copyright, said NCTA in an FCC ex parte filing Friday. Programmer content must be protected by multichannel video programming distributor apps, NCTA said. “Because the HTML5 apps solution is based on actual technology directions and the most recent global open standards, the largest MVPDs are able to offer a commitment to bring it to market within two years.” The HTML5 apps solution is “practical and achievable” and protects copyright, NCTA said.

The Copyright Office’s views on the FCC's set-top proposal lead “down a dangerous road,” said Mozilla Head of Public Policy Chris Riley in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler posted in docket 16-42 Tuesday. If the CO letter on the FCC's plan (see 1608050053) is “taken at face value,” any terms to which a pay-TV company and set-top box vendor agree “would effectively supersede the Commission’s regulatory authority under Section 629 of the Telecommunications Act to promote competition in the video navigation device market,” Riley said. Copyright law isn't meant to convey “total control,” the Mozilla letter said. Mozilla is “disappointed” in the policies outlined in the CO letter and “strongly encourages” the Commission to “take the law on its face, and continue to fulfill its own, long-established statutory obligations to promote competition,” Riley said.