CR Security Planner is Consumer Reports’ free, easy-to-use guide to staying safer online. It provides personalized recommendations and expert advice on topics such as keeping social media accounts from being hacked, locking down smart speakers and home security cameras, and reducing intrusive tracking by websites. This tool builds upon the work of the Citizen Lab, which originally launched and managed the project.
Impact
CR Security Planner has been linked or cited in guides, reports and trainings by at more than a dozen organizations, including those by PEN/Artists at Risk Connection and Access Now, and UC Berkeley Information Security Office’s Resources for Prevention and Response to Online Harassment. A white paper titled An Evaluation of Online Cyber Security Guides for Journalists by Kristin Berdan at the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley wrote, “Guides like Consumer Reports’ Security Planner are effective partly because they take the reader’s environment, assets, and protection goals and concerns into account before dispensing advice.”