From Equifax to Facebook, the discrepancy between the marketplace as it is and the marketplace as it should be was on full display in 2018. It was a year that opened our eyes to breaches and bad actors, and demonstrated the need for consumer power to serve as a balancing force in the digital age. We learned to take steps like freezing our credit scores in the wake of a massive cyber-attack—and we learned that there's more at play in our social networks than catching up with friends and family. Together with our members, we made great strides this year to increase the power of consumers and ensure that when companies make choices—to innovate, to advertise, or to bring a product or service to market—they do so with people's needs and interests in mind.

In this new age of evolving harms, our ability to keep the marketplace honest now depends on how well we can bring the same rigor we've always brought to car seats and dishwashers to a new world of apps and connected products, of coding and encryption, of hackable refrigerators, pocket-sized banks, and semi-autonomous vehicles that can be updated remotely from a thousand miles away.

Last year, we shared our commitment to building trust in this new and rapidly changing digital world—and we are proud that we delivered on that promise by creating a new Digital Standard to test and rate how responsibly modern products handle our personal data. This year, we saw the first fruits of that promise emerge. We began by testing smart TVs—and discovered troubling evidence of both rampant data collection and vulnerabilities to hacking. We also applied the Digital Standard to mobile payment apps, which an estimated 79 million Americans will use this year to split restaurant checks, pay the rent, or send money to friends and family, all with the touch of a button.

For the first time ever, the digital ratings we produced are allowing consumers to comparison shop not merely on price, quality, or durability, but also on which product will handle their privacy and data security the best. This is a milestone that's about much more than TVs or payment apps. It's about giving all of us the tools we need to look under the hood of all sorts of products and services, so that we can make better-informed decisions, raise our voices, call out bad actors, and ultimately vote with our wallets.

For all the strides we made together in 2018, we know that the playing field is still far from level for consumers. We also know that the speed of change in the world will not be slowing down—nor do we want it to. We want the benefits of new breakthroughs in science and technology to be more broadly shared, in transparent and cost-effective ways that improve our safety and offer us real value. In the year ahead, you have my commitment that CR will sharpen its focus on the most acute threats and the most promising opportunities that American consumers will face, whether that's navigating new technology that finds its way into the products and services you rely on, or evaluating what you may be gaining or giving up when you make choices in the produce aisle, car dealership, pharmacy, or bank.

Just as it has been difficult for us to fully assess the quality of our smart products, it is also virtually impossible for us to make informed judgments about another critical area of everyday life: the true quality of the food we eat. Without independent experts to conduct tests and analyze data honestly, we can't possibly account for hidden threats or make confident choices for ourselves and our families.

We all deserve to have complete information about the food that we choose, whether it's in the grocery store, the restaurant, or the kitchen—not just about calories and nutritional content, but about unseen dangers to our health. CR's experts put the integrity of our food system to the test by putting fifty popular packaged children's food items under the microscope, and by conducting a separate investigation into contaminants in the nation's meat supply. On both fronts, the results were troubling: our tests revealed concerning levels of arsenic, cadmium, and lead in a majority of baby food products we examined, while our analysis of government data suggested that concerning levels of banned drugs have made their way into our meat.

Whether it's the privacy and transparency of new technologies or the safety of our food, we need to ensure that consumer protections and standards are working for us. CR will continue to put pressure on government actors and industry wherever and whenever consumers are at risk—and we'll do everything we can to ensure that people have access to the honest information they need to make smart choices. For us, that means being there for you whether you are on mobile, checking your social channels, or visiting the CR website when you shop online. Perhaps more importantly, we also want to sharpen our capacity to listen, and connect more closely with you to deliver the benefits of being a CR member.

Let's Keep It Honest

Earlier this year, we transformed what it means to be a part of CR by introducing membership. In a sea of compromised product ratings and unverified reviews, our members have access to independent, unbiased information based on rigorous scientific testing. We're also offering new benefits to our members, such as ‘Ask CR,' our real-time, personalized product recommendation service, and our Car Recall Tracker, which allows you to enter your make and model and be provided with safety updates and guidance down the road.

We're excited that our members are engaging with one another around the issues that matter most to them, amplifying the power of their voices and strengthening the consumer community. That engagement puts more power into the hands of consumers to shape our work and help inform our shared goals. We're also excited to take new steps in the year ahead to reach more people and bring them into this community—including through the debut of our first-ever CR TV show, Consumer 101, which begins airing this fall on NBC. As we continue to take on data privacy and security, the integrity of our food system, and other areas that touch our day-to-day lives, we'll do so side by side with our members every step of the way.

The world we hope to build in the future is the same world we've been working to build since 1936—one in which consumers hold the power to keep the marketplace honest. It's a world in which they're equipped with the truthful information they need to make market-shaping decisions. It's a world in which companies compete for their business by catering to their values and needs. It's a world in which they're not alone, but instead enjoy a level of influence equal to that of corporations—because they've joined together as a vibrant community of savvy consumers.

I'm proud of the work we do to forge paths and reveal the truth—but I also know that our work is meaningless without you. The power of informed choice is empty unless, together, we make the decision to wield it; it's because of your commitment to elevating and acting on evidence, science, uncompromised journalism, and independent insights that we've been able to deliver on our mission. Keeping it honest means keeping our promise to listen to your voices, show up where you are when you need us, and together set standards that build a fairer, safer, and better world.