Public Interest Advocates Must Engage, Protect Consumers Online, Says Consumer Reports CEO
Technology and broadband providers are building "monopolies" of power, communication and data, and government is rolling back consumer choices of how data is collected and sold, actions that represent "very serious threats and risks for consumers," said Marta Tellado, CEO of Consumer Reports, at the Consumer Federation of America conference Thursday. "The digital giants are completely redefining the consumer experience. They're rewiring the ways in which people receive, share and step into the marketplace."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Tellado said consumer advocates must "insinuate ourselves" into that world because that's where consumers live. She said consumer victories in the past don't apply to this new space and the challenges facing consumers "metastasize" faster. Advocates have to engage and protect consumers in this area but also have to build and invest just like companies, she said, adding CR must be on those platforms.
Tellado said her organization completed a recent survey that found that 70 percent of people lack confidence that their personal data is private and secure. "And that's, I might add, 5 percent[age points] higher than just in January when we did our first survey," she said. In March, her organization launched a standard and collaborative effort to better protect consumers' privacy and security for companies' digital services and products (see 1703060019) since IoT growth will swell to 20.8 billion connected devices by 2020, up from 6.4 billion devices last year, she said. "Why is the work so important? Because we don't have standards and rules adequate to meet today's challenges."
Changes in Washington "closed off avenues" to serve consumer interests even before the new administration, said Tellado. She said the FCC, FTC and other consumer watchdogs are "getting rewired in opposition to the missions they were born to serve." She said it's an opportunity for consumers themselves to wield power and influence to change things: It's "an opportunity to bend the arc of the consumer movement to make it something larger and loftier than the sum of our tactics and our strategies."
During a net neutrality session, a USTelecom executive said preliminary estimates show a downward trend in broadband investment that may possibly be due to increased government regulations, but a consumer advocate resisted that assessment. Diane Holland, USTelecom vice president-law and policy, said estimates show cable, wireless, wireline and ILECs, but not certain CLECs, invested capital expenditures of $71 billion in 2016, $73 billion in 2015 and $74 billion in 2014 (see 1705050023). "There's been a decline in the last two years since the current rules were adopted," said Holland: "The caveat is these are preliminary numbers but also realistically you can't really measure the effect of regulation in two years. But what you should pay attention to is the trend," which shows numbers have gone down.
Public Knowledge Vice President Chris Lewis said people have to take the word of the companies since they're providing the investment data, but regulation isn't the only element that governs investment decisions. He said many factors go into the decisions and the burden is on industry to show how rules affect investments. He said companies are clearly saving money every year because the cost of materials like fiber is getting cheaper so they're investing in just as much with fewer dollars, calling it a good thing. He challenged whether the released total dollar investment released reflected that. Holland said industry isn't shortchanging the public but countered that regulation is a "big part" of decisions companies are making.