Reports

A License To Kill: How Uber’s Rush To Close Courthouse Doors And Roll Out Robocars Threatens Public Safety

March 17, 2026  ·  Justin Kloczko

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Uber is simultaneously trying to weaken legal accountability while expanding autonomous vehicle deployment, despite unresolved safety and transparency concerns. This report highlights how Uber’s attack on legal protections that hold drivers and auto…

Surveillance Price Gouging

December 14, 2024  ·  Justin Kloczko

Consumers this holiday season are likely charged different prices for the same product without even knowing it by companies surveilling them,

Data Stalkers

September 12, 2024  ·  Justin Kloczko

Consumer Watchdog broke down the opt out numbers of some of the biggest data brokers in the world: Experian, Acxiom and LiveRamp. Per the CCPA, data brokers operating in California must now annually report the number of requests1 to delete, correct, access, limit and…

No Opt Out

August 1, 2024  ·  Justin Kloczko

If I want to put a stop to this data sharing, I must navigate a confusing, seemingly endless labyrinth of privacy options obscured in legalese. I must choose separate1 "Facebook fuels broad privacy debate by tracking non-users," David Ingram, Reuters, April 15, 2018..

Hallucinating Risk: Here’s How Artificial Intelligence Is Taking Over Wall Street and What Can be Done About It

January 11, 2024  ·  Justin Kloczko

Major Wall Street investment banks are pouring billions of dollars into AI research, patents, and financing without adequate safeguards, according to an investigation by Consumer Watchdog.

Unseen Hand: How Automatic Decision-making Breeds Discrimination and What Can Be Done About It

March 29, 2023  ·  Justin Kloczko

Automated decision-making has become the unseen hand of discrimination, preventing the most vulnerable members of society from achieving important life goals. More evidence is emerging that discrimination is borne out when people seek a mortgage, apply for a job,…

Privacy Dawn: What’s At Stake With Our Data and How It’s Being Protected

October 19, 2022  ·  Justin Kloczko

Our personal data is sold hundreds of times a day and worth hundreds of billions1 of dollars, but if regulations for California’s strongest-in-the-nation privacy law are drawn correctly, consumers will get unprecedented control over their personal information beginning…

Connected Cars and the Threat to Your Privacy

March 30, 2022  ·  Justin Kloczko

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Personal car data is the new gold rush of the auto industry. Cars collect more data than our1 phones. As a result, car companies have become data miners.

Connected Car Report 2020: The Models Most Open To Hacks

November 11, 2020  ·  Jamie Court

All 10 of the top-selling 2020 car models are clearly connected online to safety critical systems and cannot be disconnected, leaving automobiles vulnerable to an unprecedented, large-scale hack, according to a new finding by the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog.

KILL SWITCH: Why Connected Cars Can Be Killing Machines And How To Turn Them Off

July 31, 2019  ·  Jamie Court

E S For the past five months Consumer Watchdog worked with a group of car industry technologists and engineers concerned about the danger of Internet connectivity in modern non-self-driving cars and their susceptibility to hacking. The result is this investigative…

Home Invasion: Google, Amazon Patent Filings Reveal Digital Home Assistant Privacy Problems

December 22, 2017  ·  John M. Simpson

security camera. A particularly troubling patent application describes how Google could use video feeds from smart devices to determine users’ behaviors and characteristics, including “gender, age, fashion-taste, style, mood, known languages, preferred5 activities, and…

Self-Driving Vehicles: The Threat to Consumers

June 13, 2017  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

Self-driving vehicles have become a cultural and political phenomenon. To peruse the breathless headlines is, like a ride in Marty McFly’s DeLorean, to experience the sensation of visiting a wondrous future. Millions of hours previously wasted in traffic, searching for…