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ARTICLE · 21 JUNE 2017

Smart Home Technology: Outpacing Guidelines For Fire And Explosion Investigations

Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
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Gartner Inc. has predicted that the "smart home" market will grow from 339 million applications in 2016 to more than a billion by 2018.

United StatesConsumer Protection
H. Michael O'Brien
H. Michael O'Brien
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Gartner Inc. has predicted that the "smart home" market will grow from 339 million applications in 2016 to more than a billion by 2018.1 In anticipation, property insurers have partnered with companies offering smart home technologies to promote the use of smart devices in the home.

However, with all the apparent benefits of smart home technology come a number of potential risks. Dumb products made smart by connection to the Internet present a new layer of complexity when a failure occurs.

In 2016, Elliot Kaye, chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), reported that the CPSC was assessing the risks to consumers posed by emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), and identified concerns with the safety of devices that can be hacked or can fail if a software update to fix a problem is not installed.2

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