The Digital Standard

Independent product testing has historically focused on how easy products and services are to use, as well as their safety, quality and cost. Today, such testing must also incorporate the individual and collective effects of products and services on values like privacy, fairness, and user control. How can we evaluate the privacy and security of connected products?

• The Digital Standard is a framework used by independent testing organizations like Consumer Reports to evaluate consumer technologies and how well they respect people’s interests and needs, including privacy, security, ownership and governance.
• The Digital Standard is built openly and strives to represent the expert consensus of consumer protection organizations and public interest technology researchers. It is used by a wide range of organizations and product teams to enable comparative evaluations of connected products and services.
• The goal of The Digital Standard is to generate expert consensus on what is considered best practice to influence design and creation of connected products and services. We want to help companies stand out by building products that prioritize user values and help independent testing organizations recognize market leaders.

The Digital Standard is a framework to measure consumer values like privacy, security, and ownership. We seek to define industry-leading practices and enable product testing and evaluation in a fast-changing marketplace. Anyone can contribute to the Standard and it is updated on a quarterly basis.