Consumer Reports to factor privacy and security into its technology reviews
There is much to consider when buying a piece of technology, but price and suitability tend to be at the top of most people's lists. In recent years, however, there has been an increased interest in privacy and security, and this is something that renown reviewer Consumer Reports is going to start taking into consideration.
Consumer Reports most recently hit the headlines for deciding not to recommend the new MacBook Pro (although it later changed its mind), and now the non-profit has teamed up with a number of privacy, security, and consumer rights organizations with a view to creating a new digital standard for products to live up to. The aim is to put data security and privacy first, just as many consumers are starting to do.
While Consumer Reports will be using its new standard to judge existing products, it is also hoping that it will influence the tech industry and force it to produce safer, more secure products. The organization says: "The standard will identify and address potential risks in the data security and privacy of digitally-connected products. The partnership is developing the standard to encourage industry to design and produce safer products for consumers."
As well as physical products, the standard also covers apps and services, and Consumer Reports says on-going checks will be performed into security and privacy:
Another goal of the standard is to protect personal information obtained by products, apps and services after they are purchased. For example, CR exposed significant privacy risks in the popular pregnancy and fertility app Glow, in which users’ personal health information was easily accessed by individuals with basic hacking skills. Glow fixed the potentially dangerous lapses in security after CR testing revealed the problem.
This standard is designed to aggressively address compromises to online privacy and security and push for stringent protections in the marketplace.
Consumer Reports has not indicated exactly when it will start to use the standard in its reviews, but it is already available for consumers and industry insiders to check out.
You can read through Consumer Report's first version of the standard today at thedigitalstandard.org.
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