Per una volta il CES visto con occhio critico.
"Companies could choose to make useful, private, repairable products,
said iFixit’s Wiens during the Worst in Show announcement, but what is
the real purpose of a $200 travel mug with location-sharing capabilities
and an irreplaceable battery?"
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/08/ces-worst-products-safety-privacy/>
LAS VEGAS — American shoppers, regulators and companies face a problem:
Tech products often hit the market with giant safety and privacy flaws.
At the same time, CES, a giant annual consumer electronics exhibition in
Las Vegas, brings a flood of new gadgets. It might be pouring gas on a
fire, privacy and security experts say.
“I think there is a chronic problem with consumer electronics, that they
are not giving people the full picture that they need to evaluate
whether they want to use these tools,” said Cindy Cohn, executive
director of the privacy rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Last week, the CES show floor buzzed with thousands of companies
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/04/ces-2023/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6>
slinging health wearables, smart TVs, autonomous vehicles and other
gadgets that rely on data from our bodies or homes. Many pitch
themselves as the next great thing — but almost none directly address
how they treat customer’s data after it’s collected or their approach to
safety and security.
“CES doesn’t seem to have a theme this year other than throwing
everything at a wall and seeing what sticks,” said Kyle Wiens in a
YouTube live stream. Wiens is CEO of iFixit, which advocates for
consumers’ right to repair their devices. “There are negative
externalities to our society when that happens.”
Cohn and representatives from iFixit, Consumer Reports and other
consumer advocacy groups rounded up a CES “Worst in Show,” calling out
which products could have the greatest negative impact on privacy,
consumer choice and the environment. They included some of this year’s
breakout favorites, such as the U-Scan urine sensor from connected
health care company Withings, which analyzes hormone levels in urine and
is gearing up for U.S. launch. After the Supreme Court overturned the
right to an abortion in June and some states banned abortion, hormonal
changes could potentially become evidence of a crime
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/04/abortion-digital-privacy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10>.
Withings said it stores that data indefinitely and, if subpoenaed by law
enforcement, would “comply with all legal requirements in the
territories in which it operates.” It said it doesn’t otherwise share
data with third parties.
Media tend not to ask tough questions on safety at CES, and companies
tend not to volunteer the information, Cohn noted.
“Literally only one company even mentioned [privacy or safety], and
ironically, it was a sexting app,” said Leanna Miller on the show floor.
Miller said she works for a small company that makes reusable writing
tablets and came to CES to browse all the new products. The company she
referenced was Blyynd, an adult network that claims to use encryption to
promote safe sexting.
With few exceptions, tech companies address safety when problems arise
rather than taking more time to test products and build in safe
features, said Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
director Jen Easterly, in an interview on the sidelines of CES.
These companies’ incentives are “really focused on cost, capability,
performance and speed to market, and not on basic safety,” she said.
Easterly’s CES address alongside CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz focused on
the rapidly rising cost and danger of cybercrime, which often relies on
hastily shipped products
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/18/smart-home-security/?itid=lk_inline_manual_19>,
they said. It was the first time a cybersecurity official of Easterly’s
rank has spoken at the show.
“As we think about the world we’re living in, we cannot accept that in
ten years [cyber risks] are going to be the same or worse,” she said
during the talk.
That may depend on consumers demanding safer products or the government
regulating software, though Easterly noted she doesn’t support
“burdensome” regulation. Regulation could come in the form of stricter
privacy safeguards or clearer communication with consumers about the
risks a product poses. The White House has backed the idea of a
nutrition-label-style “software bill of materials” telling buyers which
software components a product contains.
Just last week, for instance, the European Union fined Meta $414 million
for burying information about its targeted advertising business in its
terms of service rather than obtaining its users’ meaningful consent and
giving them an option to decline.**Meta has said it intends to appeal
the ruling and the fines. Risky technology such as facial recognition is
also the subject of scrutiny in the E.U.
Meanwhile at CES, companies touting facial recognition technology
spatter the show floor. Miko, a Disney-backed robot that claims to keep
kids engaged
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2023/ces-2023-robots/?itid=sf_technology_personal-tech_top-table_p001_f003&itid=lk_inline_manual_25>,
comes equipped with facial recognition and uses its camera to analyze
children’s moods and map elements of your home, its website says. Its
CEO said all facial recognition data is stored on the device and not the
cloud.
Then there’s the camera-enabled smart home devices
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/amazon-smart-home/?itid=lk_inline_manual_28>
— such as the autonomous mower Landroid Vision that navigates its way
around your yard. Its maker, WORX, said all images the mower captures
are anonymized and any faces or house numbers are blurred before the
images are sent to the company’s cloud storage. Its privacy policy
leaves room to share data for advertising.
Companies could choose to make useful, private, repairable products,
said iFixit’s Wiens during the Worst in Show announcement, but what is
the real purpose of a $200 travel mug with location-sharing capabilities
and an irreplaceable battery?
“We already have thermoses,” he said. “They’re phenomenally successful.
They’ve been around for a very long time.”
Jamie Kaplan, vice president of communications at CES-producer Consumer
Technology Association (CTA), said the show has encouraged innovation,
entrepreneurship and economic growth. This year, CTA hosted 3,200
exhibitors.
“CES requires exhibits to comply with U.S. law, which favors innovation
and focuses on restricting bad behavior rather than banning new and
innovative products,” she said in a statement.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/01/19/twitter-privacy-settings/?itid=co_privacyhelpdesk_1>
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