Craig Newmark, founder of the eponymous classified ads website Craigslist, has donated $6 million to fund Digital Lab, a division of Consumer Reports which is tasked with monitoring and evaluating the data collection practices of mobile and internet-based products and services.
According to Marta Tellado, CEO of Consumer Reports, said that Digital Lab would serve to guide consumers of internet-based products and services to the best providers which have their data privacy in mind.
Ben Paynter filed this report published by Fast Company:
Newmark, a previous Consumer Reports board member, will serve as the honorary chair of a related digital advisory council of tech experts and researchers who will help evolve Digital Lab. The rest of that team hasn’t yet been disclosed. Newmark made his contribution through Craig Newmark Philanthropies, an organization he previously told Fast Company exists to encourage “fairness and opportunity and respect.”
In recent years, he’s given to causes like encouraging STEM education, supporting veterans, and defending the principles of good journalism. “In some respects, I’m pushing the discussion about what our rights and obligations are in everything I do,” Newmark tells Fast Company. “However, I think the pointy end of the spear needs to be something like Consumer Reports. They’re good at it. They have a long track record of being good at it. And you’ve got to start somewhere.”
Consumer Reports began piloting its deep tech testing in 2017 with the invention of the Digital Standard, a set of guidelines that spell out a set of inherent digital rights and protections that manufacturers can now be evaluated against. To avoid its own blind spots, the nonprofit teamed up with other cybersecurity and privacy organizations including Disconnect, Ranking Digital Rights, The Cyber Independent Testing Lab, and Aspiration. Newmark funded the creation of that rubric alongside the Ford Foundation and Sloan Foundation
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One of the Digital Lab’s first priorities will be an assessment of different internet routers, which are known as a classic gateway for hackers to start controlling other devices. Additional investigations will likely focus on “connected home products” (a definition that could include everything from voice-power assistants to thermostats), password management service, and online privacy settings, according to a press release.
