Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace

In an era of corporate overreach when consumers have never been more vulnerable to digital surveillance, unsafe food, and dangerously faulty products, the president and CEO of Consumer Reports gives us a playbook to put the power back in our hands.

You've been getting ripped off.


 

The rules that have protected consumers for decades are failing. Companies are spying on us. Many of the products we once trusted are dangerous and failing at alarming rates. Whether we are buying a crib, a small appliance, an iPhone app, or shopping for car insurance, it's become harder than ever to know whether the choices we make in the marketplace are putting us at risk-either from physical harm or the abuse of our personal data by hackers or corporations.

 

This is intolerable. It's wrong. And we don't have to put up with it anymore. Marta L. Tellado, the president and CEO of Consumer Reports, has been an advocate for consumers for decades. In Buyer Aware, Tellado shows you the steps you can take to protect yourself from predatory business practices, and how to exert your inherent power as a consumer to spur politicians and businesses to clean up their act. Only then can we ensure that we have an economy that is fair, safe, and transparent for all, and puts consumers first.

Marta L. Tellado is the President and CEO of Consumer Reports, America's foremost consumer organization that advances truth, transparency, and fairness in the marketplace. In 2019, she led the creation of a Digital Lab to develop new ways to test and report on digital products and services-from connected thermostats, to cars that collect data on their drivers, to online platforms such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook. She also created Consumer Reports' Digital Standard, an open source set of benchmarks that can be used by companies and organizations to design digital products that are respectful of consumers' digital rights.

Prior to joining CR, she served as Vice President at the Ford Foundation, Executive Director of the Domestic Policy Group at the Aspen Institute, Director for National Issues and Outreach for US Senator Bill Bradley, and as Vice President of the Partnership for Public Service.