Yesterday Ethyca, Incogni, and Consumer Reports’ Digital Lab successfully conducted the first live end-to-end interoperability test of the Data Rights Protocol. The Data Rights Protocol (DRP) is a technical standard for exchanging data rights requests under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). First announced at an MIT Media Lab in October 2021, the protocol is being co-developed by a consortium of
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Lab notes: April 2022
Craig Newmark Philanthropies is partnering with CR and other groups to educate and protect Americans from growing cybersecurity threats Earlier this month, Craig Newmark Philanthropies announced a “cyber civil defense” plan dedicated to educating and protecting Americans from escalating cybersecurity threats. This effort will contribute $50 million to a diverse coalition of organizations, including CR. Stay tuned for more news from CR
Improving IoT Inspector (Part 2)
Summary. Accurately identifying IoT devices is a difficult problem. We walk through some of the successes and failures. (You can find Part 1 of this seris at this link.) Problem 2: How to identify IoT devices? Main problem. Let’s say you’re using IoT Inspector for the first time. You have dozens of smart devices. You scan your home network with IoT Inspector.
On authorized agents: Recommendations to California privacy regulators from Consumer Reports
From The Consumer Reports Digital Lab Team (digitallab@cr.consumer.org). Who should read this? This writing is aimed at California regulators, the CA Privacy Protection Agency, and other states with authorized representative provisions in their privacy laws. If you’re not that audience, you may be interested in an overview of this research or our recommendations for covered businesses. Summary In Fall 2021,
Giant internet platforms are failing us – we need fair market rules
The pursuit of profits might work as an organizing principle for an individual corporation, but it cannot be the basis to set market rules Over the past two years, the pandemic and other significant events have revealed how misinformation online can have dire consequences. They are a reminder of how key markets – including the markets for news and information
Lab notes: March 2022
Tech giants are pushing for weak privacy laws across the country As privacy legislation has stalled in Congress, giant tech companies are deploying a full court press to push states across the country to enact weak privacy legislation. In the past few years, California, Colorado, and Virginia have all passed laws of varying strength, California being the strongest. However, Utah’s governor just signed a
Three Speculative Futures for Consumer Data
Image by Iris Lei for Popular Science How might we change the way our data is used so that we, as consumers, have more choice in building our future? While this is a fundamental driver of the Digital Lab’s work, it can be difficult to visualize all the ways that novel uses of consumer data could transform our lives. But
Designing a privacy policy for a privacy app
Image courtesy of Afsal and OpenIDEO’s Cybersecurity Visuals Challenge Consumers have privacy rights under the law, but it can be pretty hard to use them. CR research has shown just how many obstacles consumers face when they try to use state privacy laws to their advantage. The process needs to be easier. Permission Slip is our answer. It’s the app
Lab Notes: February 2022
CR joins consortium to improve consumers’ cybersecurity CR recently joined the newly-formed Nonprofit Cyber Coalition, a first-of-its-kind alliance of 22 global nonprofit organizations that seek to raise awareness of cyber threats, help people protect their personal data, and work with public and private sector institutions to advance solutions for a safer digital world. Read the announcement of the Nonprofit Cyber
Improving IoT Inspector (Part 1)
I’m Danny Y. Huang, an Assistant Professor at the Center for Cyber Security at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Recently, I was awarded the Consumer Reports Digital Labs Fellowship. I’m the main developer of IoT Inspector, an open-source desktop app that allows users to identify potential security and privacy vulnerabilities in their smart homes. My team and I
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