GALLOWAY, N.J. — What’s the driving force behind requiring seat belts in cars?
Which consumer group recently revealed how tilted baby sleepers contributed to the deaths of several infants?
Consumer Reports writes about these consumer risks and has been a consistent source of independent product testing since 1936. Now the group’s CEO and president, Marta L. Terrado, wants the nonprofit to take its advocacy and human-centered values to everything else it does. As something tangible, that is, the digital world.
“We live in a surveillance economy. Many of our movements are tracked. Many of the values that have shaped my life and shaped my ambitions in a country that respects personal privacy. But it’s actually threatened by some of the ways consumers are exposed in digital and commercial markets,” she said. “Our democracy can only thrive if we have safe and fair markets for everyone.”
Terrado spoke to approximately 100 students, staff, and faculty at Stockton University’s Campus Center Theater on Oct. 29 as part of the Dean of Business’s special guest speaker event. Before joining Consumer Reports a decade ago, Terrado worked at the Ford Foundation, the Aspen Institute, the Partnership for Public Service, and the office of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.
“I’m really looking forward to welcoming you all. I do a lot of research on consumer behavior, but what we do is usually done behind closed doors,” he said in a discussion with Terrado. said Naz Onell, an associate professor of business research and marketing who led the study. “We have a lot to hear and learn from you because you are connected to the real world.”
How can you fully participate in political and social systems and environments when your economic agency and power are undermined? Now that burden is on us. It doesn’t have to be that way. There should be no privacy or security settings. It should be a right. ”
Marta L. Terrado, Consumer Reports CEO and President
The real world is becoming more difficult every day for consumers looking to buy safe products and protect their privacy, Terrado said. And that has always been the “foundation” of Consumer Reports.
“We believe that what you go to the market and find there should be safe,” she said. “That’s what sets us apart from other commentators. We investigate. We advocate. We work with companies. We share data with them, so you can claims that cars are more reliable because we survey millions of consumers every year about the cars they drive.
“Data is power, and data and science power everything we do. It’s not an opinion, and it’s not someone in your house writing a review.”
Mr. Terrado began by discussing his recent book, “Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace,” which he wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said much of her belief in transparency comes from her upbringing, where she was born and spent her childhood there. She recalled her parents pushing their car out of the driveway on the way to the airport because they didn’t want their neighbors to know they were leaving the authoritarian state.
“This book is a playbook. It’s trying to give you thoughts and ideas about how to harness the power of consumers in the marketplace,” she told the business students in the audience. “Markets are all about supply and demand, and we as consumers are learning that we have to demand certain things from the market. I think consumers are a sleeping giant.”
She said she believes civil rights and consumer rights are “inextricably linked.”
“If your economic agency and power are undermined, how can you fully participate in political and social systems and environments?” she said. “Now that burden is on us. It doesn’t have to be that way. Privacy and security shouldn’t be a thing. It should be a right.”
And she’s not afraid to leverage technology to help Consumer Reports achieve its goals. She spoke extensively about artificial intelligence and how it is an “amazing innovation.”
“I don’t think it’s about switching off,” she said of how she approaches AI. “We have to be as innovative as commercial and large corporations and start moving the needle toward what we call ethical AI.”
That ethical AI needs to be informed by good, hard data. This is something that Consumer Reports has a lot of information about on commercial products. Terrado told the audience that the nonprofit plans to release a new AI model called “Ask CR” later this year that leverages the organization’s vast collection of consumer data.
“Imagine a world where you not only have access to product service and information, but also a trusted agent who can tell you whether a service contract is real or a scam, whether a warranty is worth it,” she said. Said.
Mr. Terrado ended his talk with some important advice for the audience. “Think about your life and career like you would a business plan.”
“Your business plan for life is determined by your values and how you want to grow as a person,” she said. “Do you want to be a part of this community and this society when we really need a generation to lead us to a better place?”
— Story: Mark Melhorn, Photos: Lizzie Niels
