From Our President: A Trusted Marketplace

For the past 85 years we have played a vital role in delivering trusted, independent, rigorously tested information to help consumers navigate the marketplace. That was essential when we started in 1936 and remains just as critical today as we emerge from a pandemic and the economic devastation caused by it. Because just as when we first hung the sign on the door, we are now seeing the perils of misinformation run rampant in society, and a lack of trust in our institutions.

As the articles on genetic home-testing kits (“Read This Before You Buy a Genetic Testing Kit”) and credit score mistakes (“Why the Pandemic May Be Hurting Your Credit Score”) attest, the issues confronting consumers today are more complex and consequential than ever before. The potential for good on both fronts is enormous. There is the possibility to get a glimpse of your origins or to learn about potential medical conditions, not to mention the ability for scientists to use vast troves of data to spark advances. For credit reporting there is the ability to safeguard your financial future by tracking and gaining insight into your individual score.

And yet the potential for harm exists, too—bad actors and a lack of trustworthy information in either of these arenas could seriously threaten our privacy and security. The central marketplace issues of tomorrow may be more digitized and less evident than those of the past, but they require standards just as high and safeguards just as thoughtful in order to ensure our safety and well-being.

With so much at stake in achieving a modern marketplace that works for all—particularly in this moment when we are beginning to emerge from crisis and rebuild our economy for the future—CR will continue to lead the way on behalf of our members and all consumers to ensure that the path forward includes trusted information and policies that put people first.