This week, GE Appliances, a Haier company, joined fellow global manufacturers from the connected home space at CES 2022 to launch the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA), an organization helping provide consumers with a safer, simpler and better experience in their connected home.

In addition to GE Appliances and Haier, founding HCA members include American Standard Heating and Air Conditioning, Arçelik, The Electrolux Group, Samsung, and Trane Residential.

“Delivering continuous innovation has become critical in today’s digitally oriented world,” said Shawn Stover, HCA board director and vice president of SmartHome Solutions at GE Appliances. “The HCA will focus on the longer lifecycle of durable goods, how they integrate in someone’s home and their everyday life. Flexibility and interoperability will be synonymous with the connected home and the work of the HCA will help enable ongoing innovation for cornerstone appliances and systems within the home.”

Device interoperability to expand consumer choice

HCA’s goal is to provide consumers with more choices for their connected home through C2C (Cloud-to-Cloud) interoperability, supporting the compatibility of devices across brands.

Uncompromising safety and data privacy

Along with interoperability, consumer safety and data privacy are key pillars of HCA’s mission.

Driven by the exponential growth of big data, consumer privacy and data protection have become top priorities for device manufacturers. 

New smart features on connected devices (like remote diagnostics, remote start/stop, etc.) provide a new layer of convenience. However, unauthorized access to such features would lead to consumer dissatisfaction and mistrust.

Connected device manufacturers are responsible for protecting consumers from these risks and safeguarding data generated by these devices. 

In addition, complex smart devices with moving and mechanical parts–including those with high voltage electrical components and heating elements–require safety expertise from companies that understand these devices best.

Leveraging the collective background, experience and knowledge across its manufacturer membership base, HCA will prioritize consumer safety in the digital landscape.

Innovation and thought leadership in the connected home space

HCA members will have the opportunity to innovate, influence industry trends, share expertise across peers and become leaders in expanding the connected home ecosystem.

Through collaboration with other standards organizations and governing entities, HCA will foster fair competition and drive innovation to provide consumers with the safest, most feature-rich connected home experience.

About Home Connectivity Alliance

The Home Connectivity Alliance is a member-driven organization dedicated to the development and promotion of safe and secure interoperability across long-life appliances, HVAC systems and TVs within the connected home ecosystem.

For more information, visit www.homeconnectivityalliance.org.