Media Room
Menu
Suggested Searches
Recent Searches
Suggested Searches
Product Ratings
Resources
Chat With AskCR
Resources
All Products A-ZThe payment for your account couldn't be processed or you've canceled your account with us.
Re-activateMy account
Sign In
My account
Sign In
Media Room
Release date 12/16/2019
YONKERS, N.Y. – Consumer Reports (CR), the nonprofit organization, today announced it received $1.5 million in grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to scale up its research and reporting on consumer privacy and data security.
These grants are an expansion of the Sloan Foundation’s earlier support for CR and its newly-launched Digital Lab. The lab is an innovation hub that explores and develops solutions for today’s digital threats in partnership with consumers, technologists, policymakers, advocates, and industry leaders.
We recognize that technology has growing control and power over our daily lives. Our challenge today is to ensure that it’s designed to serve the best interests of consumers — not just serve the interests of companies that collect and monetize our data.
The Sloan Foundation has awarded a $1M grant to CR’s Digital Lab to increase the breadth and scope of CR’s research and reporting on connected products and services. With Sloan’s support, the Digital Lab will now offer fellowships for computer security researchers to develop new tools to detect and evaluate how consumers’ data is collected and shared.
We’re thrilled that the Sloan Foundation’s generous support and partnership will allow Consumer Reports to advance our work educating and empowering people when it comes to the most urgent questions for today’s consumers.
Additionally, the Sloan Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to support the production of new video content to boost consumers’ knowledge about data privacy and security, highlighting digital privacy traps, exploring topics like targeted ads, smart speakers, and password managers, and outlining simple solutions to protect online privacy. This content will be broadcast on CR’s award-winning television program, Consumer 101, which airs Saturdays on NBC, and the Spanish-language version of the series, Taller Del Consumidor, which airs Saturdays on Telemundo.
Consumer 101, which kicked off its second season this fall, garnered a weekly viewership of approximately one million and won several industry awards during its first season.
"We recognize that technology has growing control and power over our daily lives. Our challenge today is to ensure that it’s designed to serve the best interests of consumers — not just serve the interests of companies that collect and monetize our data,” said Shar Taylor, Chief Social Impact Officer at Consumer Reports. “We’re thrilled that the Sloan Foundation’s generous support and partnership will allow Consumer Reports to advance our work educating and empowering people when it comes to the most urgent questions for today’s consumers.“
“We are proud to support Consumer Reports in this pioneering effort to research the increasing commercialization of our data and to educate consumers about reclaiming their digital rights,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “Our privacy and security face unprecedented challenges in the age of big data and Consumer Reports is one of the few credible and effective organizations that can establish basic guidelines and standards to safeguard our personal information and protect our privacy.”
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, is a non-profit philanthropy that makes grants for original research and education in science, technology, and economic performance. Sloan support has played a critical role in the early development of many scientific fields, including cognitive science, behavioral economics, and indoor microbial ecology. Sloan’s Public Understanding of Science and Technology program supports books, television, film, theater, and new media to give people a keener appreciation for the increasingly scientific and technological world in which we live and to convey some of the challenges and rewards of the scientific and technological enterprise. Sloan’s Universal Access to Knowledge program aims to harness advances in digital information technology to facilitate the openness and accessibility of all knowledge in the digital age for the widest public benefit under fair and secure conditions. Learn more at sloan.org or follow Sloan on Twitter and Facebook at @SloanPublic.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit membership organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. For 80 years, CR has provided evidence-based product testing and ratings, rigorous research, hard-hitting investigative journalism, public education, and steadfast policy action on behalf of consumers’ interests. Unconstrained by advertising or other commercial influences, CR has exposed landmark public health and safety issues and strives to be a catalyst for pro-consumer changes in the marketplace. From championing responsible auto safety standards, to winning food and water protections, to enhancing healthcare quality, to fighting back against predatory lenders in the financial markets, Consumer Reports has always been on the front lines, raising the voices of consumers.
© 2019 Consumer Reports. The material above is intended for legitimate news entities only; it may not be used for advertising or promotional purposes. Consumer Reports® is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. We accept no advertising and pay for all the products we test. We are not beholden to any commercial interest. Our income is derived from the sale of Consumer Reports® magazine, ConsumerReports.org® and our other publications and information products, services, fees, and noncommercial contributions and grants. Our Ratings and reports are intended solely for the use of our readers. Neither the Ratings nor the reports may be used in advertising or for any other commercial purpose without our prior written permission. Consumer Reports will take all steps open to it to prevent unauthorized commercial use of its content and trademarks.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit membership organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. For 80 years, CR has provided evidence-based product testing and ratings, rigorous research, hard-hitting investigative journalism, public education, and steadfast policy action on behalf of consumers’ interests. Unconstrained by advertising or other commercial influences, CR has exposed landmark public health and safety issues and strives to be a catalyst for pro-consumer changes in the marketplace. From championing responsible auto safety standards, to winning food and water protections, to enhancing healthcare quality, to fighting back against predatory lenders in the financial markets, Consumer Reports has always been on the front lines, raising the voices of consumers.
© 2019 Consumer Reports. The material above is intended for legitimate news entities only; it may not be used for advertising or promotional purposes. Consumer Reports® is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. We accept no advertising and pay for all the products we test. We are not beholden to any commercial interest. Our income is derived from the sale of Consumer Reports® magazine, ConsumerReports.org® and our other publications and information products, services, fees, and noncommercial contributions and grants. Our Ratings and reports are intended solely for the use of our readers. Neither the Ratings nor the reports may be used in advertising or for any other commercial purpose without our prior written permission. Consumer Reports will take all steps open to it to prevent unauthorized commercial use of its content and trademarks.