Thread by @doctorow

In world of morally compromised technology and markets, a few entities stand out as consistently on the side of right. @ConsumerReports is one of them.

For 85 years, they have produced rigorous, unbiased, trustworthy accounts of the manufactured goods in our lives.

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As good as they are at this, understanding digital technology requires significant changes, as software-based devices (especially those that interact with remote services) are difficult to evaluate in the lab, since their characteristics can be silently altered at any time.

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CR rose to this challenge with a series of excellent, in-depth cybersecurity breakdowns of products and services, but it's still early days.

Enter the CR Digital Lab, with nonresidential fellowships "to uncover and address emerging consumer harms."

digital-lab.consumerreports.org/join/

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These are paid ($50k!) one-year fellowships " of interest to engineers, computer scientists, information security professionals, independent researchers, academics, social scientists, and others."

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Fellows work with CR's reporters and advocates, get access to its lab facilities, and work with its wide-ranging network of public-interest technologists.

You have until May 21 to apply.

eof/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro…