BUYER AWARE: HARNESSING OUR CONSUMER POWER FOR A SAFE, FAIR, AND TRANSPARENT MARKETPLACE
Marta L. Tellado
© 2022, Public Affairs
$29.00
305 pages

Don't look now, but you're being shadowed.

It sure seems like it sometimes. Play around on social media and a few minutes later, ads start showing up for the discussions you just posted. Search a topic, click on a link, peek at an ad, and hey, are you being followed?

Read Buyer Aware by Marta L. Tellado, and bet on it.

It's almost quite scary: the online giants, "the Big Four" — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google" — know what you're doing this weekend. They know about your health concerns and your vacation plans, too, and they're not alone, says Marta Tellado. Consumer products, financial firms, and internet trolls also wreak havoc on your life. And you willingly let them.

"At some point early in the internet revolution," says Tellado, "we lost control over our digital lives."

She cites problems with Amazon devices that listened to a user's conversation and sent it to a third party. A Facebook algorithm suggested that a bigamist's wives become friends. Millions of people innocently going about their lives are monitored and recorded on Ring devices, and the footage is easily accessible by police without a warrant. Tellado points out the "ever-shrinking word 'Ad' in the corner of your Google Search." She wonders why personal data is taken and sold and why "opting out" isn't the default.

There are a few things that we, as consumers, can do.

"The first is to be skeptical," says Tellado. Reviews are faked all too often these days, and certain news outlets are "entertainment" rather than news. Confirm before you share on social media, to avoid passing on misinformation. Keep an eye on your elders; elder fraud is big business now. Likewise, watch your credit report carefully. Know how to opt out of data-collecting as much as you can, and don't let data breaches go unrepaired. Take security practices seriously and be smarter about navigating the internet. And Tellado urges us to "pester lawmakers by phone, email, or visits to stick up for consumers." She adds that "we can do it state by state if Congress dawdles."

Once upon a time, when the internet was an infant, it was perceived as a benevolent place for finding knowledge. Buyer Aware makes it abundantly clear that the opposite is true.

Focusing on big business, author and Consumer Reports CEO Marta L. Tellado writes about some of the breaches of trust that the "Big Four" have broken; it's information that rivals anything a horror novelist could offer. These are facts that should keep your finger hovering over your mouse or keypad for a few extra think-about-it seconds before clicking.

Then again ... don't we already know what we're giving up? While these warnings are great to have together, they're nothing new. In reading about them in one single, thorough book, readers could be forgiven for wondering if fighting data collection and internet misusage is like a flea battling an elephant.

What's here is encouraging and discouraging, both at the same time, but it's necessary to know. Indeed, if you're willing to do the work, Buyer Aware sheds good light on the internet's shadows.