Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace

by Marta L. Tellado

In an era of corporate overreach when consumers have never been more vulnerable to digital surveillance, unsafe food, and dangerously faulty products, the president and CEO of Consumer Reports gives us a playbook to put the power back in our hands.

You've been getting ripped off.   The rules that have protected consumers for decades are failing. Companies are spying on us. Many of the products we once trusted are dangerous and failing at alarming rates. Whether we are buying a crib, a small appliance, an iPhone app, or shopping for car insurance, it's become harder than ever to know whether the choices we make in the marketplace are putting us at risk-either from physical harm or the abuse of our personal data by hackers or corporations.   This is intolerable. It's wrong. And we don't have to put up with it anymore. Marta L. Tellado, the president and CEO of Consumer Reports, has been an advocate for consumers for decades. In Buyer Aware, Tellado shows you the steps you can take to protect yourself from predatory business practices, and how to exert your inherent power as a consumer to spur politicians and businesses to clean up their act. Only then can we ensure that we have an economy that is fair, safe, and transparent for all, and puts consumers first.

Genres: Nonfiction

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2022

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

According to this author, "user generated reviews"--like this one--are generally untrustworthy, especially if they're 5 star reviews. Or if they're from social influencers who got the product for free. The only really trustworthy reviews are from Consumer Reports, for which the author works, and she highly promotes them. Either this is hypocrisy (as book reviewers have been asked to review her book which is given to them for free) or it's really stupid to insult the very people who are going to be the first ones reviewing your book. Just saying.

I've only read about a third of the book and won't be finishing it. So far, she has described some things that she doesn't like about the internet that people should be aware of, though nothing really new to me so far. She basically said to go the the Consumer Reports site for more information on how to prevent companies from tracking you to gather and sale your data, and I assume that she will point the reader there for solutions in future chapters, too.

Why have I stopped reading when I usually finish even the books I hate? Because she's ranting about how people are manipulated toward their own bias and how horrible misinformation is while proving with her examples that she's been manipulated toward her bias and hasn't noticed. If you're conservative, she'll insult you in some fashion, like specifically targeting Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson (from Fox News) and saying they don't report news but rather provide manipulative fiction.

She also spread misinformation while complaining about how there's so much misinformation. One example is that she stated as fact that the COVID vaccines are safe and it's misinformation to say that they can cause death. Yet the CDC's own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (for data up to June 17, 2022) indicates that 29,031 deaths have been reported from the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, with 16% occurring within 24 hours of vaccination, 20% occurring within 48 hours of vaccination and 59% occurring in people who experienced an onset of symptoms within 48 hours of being vaccinated. If she can't even correctly identify what is true and what is propaganda, why should I trust her discernment about anything else in this book?

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Tom Lashnits · Rating 2 out of 5]

Head of Consumer Reports offers up part autobiography, part political tract, part consumer warning. She’s on target when criticizing the big social media companies for having too much power and collecting too much data, but her solutions (as is often the case) are frustratingly vague and weak and improbable. There's nothing here we haven't heard before.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased because I served on the Consumer Reports board during the years that Marta Tellado joined CR as its president. That said, Buyer Aware is both a fantastic introduction to the mission and work of this legendary nonprofit organization and a welcome addition to the literature of corporate greed and consumerist pushback. Highly recommend this book!

[Minelle Weiman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is essentially a very long advertisement for Consumer Reports.

[Dar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you believe in business self-regulation and minimal government intervention in the marketplace, skip this book. The author strongly believes that legislation and enforcement are essential to keep consumers informed and safe. I completely agree. I am an unabashed fan of Consumer Reports which provides independent testing and journalism as well as consumer advocacy. Author Tellado, CEO of Consumer Reports, has provided the best one-book summary I've seen of current consumer concerns. She covers the following topics, with many well-chosen examples:

Personal data collection
Misinformation such as fake reviews, secret trials of features on social media, and scams
Financial risks such as payday loans, probate advances and hidden fees
Safety risks, especially the reliance on manufacturers to test their own products - plus how hard it is to get items recalled
and most importantly,
Bias - discrimination built into testing, advertising, pricing and availability of products - from medical devices to cars to homes. Tellado makes no bones about her support for universal broadband and more tax support for higher education, among other measures to bring about equity.

Readers are encouraged to visit a new Buyer Aware website to view tools such as Consumer Reports Security Planner. This site seems to exist almost solely to promote the book, and has very few links to other content. I feel the site will be short-lived, and the references to it in the book will quickly date the book! I will be happy if much more free content is linked to the site and it becomes an enduring resource. Meanwhile, it would have made more sense to direct readers to the Consumer Reports website, but a membership is required to access the information. You probably know that many public libraries in North America offer free public access to the Consumer Reports database, but if yours doesn't have it, their small, scalable membership fee may be worth it to you.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long been a fan of Consumer Reports (as a kid, the last page was the best, rivaling Al Jaffee for best final page of a magazine). In my current and past research, I've been in awe of those in the early consumer movement. In this book, the current president of Consumers Union explains why awe still need consumer protection, and why it's so much more than "just" product ratings. Our data, our safety online, and in all spaces means awe so need the government to do its job, and watch dog organizations to ensure that they do.

[Kseniya Kosmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

was expecting more suggestions about we, as consumers, can realistically do to to change the rigged system set by industry giants that profit off of consumers

[Tommy Rutherford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

[Michael Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's the president and CEO of Consumer Reports who expands on previously published articles.

[Sheldon Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights on consumer protections, but feels like corporate rage at the same time.

[Robert Louis · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a loyal CR reader, my expectations where high for this book. Sadly, it provided little nuance for the consumer. It is things we have heard before, with a little (quite a bit really) of social justice lunacy.