CES "Worst of" awards puts spotlight on security and privacy concerns - Enterprise News

There are some things that you want to stay in Vegas.

For vendors at the Consumer Electronics Show, that includes receiving the “Worst in Show” awards from consumer and privacy watchdogs.

The group, which includes technology repair tool seller iFixit and digital rights advocates the Electronic Frontier Foundation among others and is not affiliated with CES, released their “worst” list Thursday, highlighting the tech that the group found would create the largest privacy and safety concerns.

“From easily hackable lawn mowers to $300 earbuds that will fail in two years, these are products that jeopardize our safety, encourage wasteful overconsumption, and normalize privacy violations,” Gay Gordon-Byrne, the executive director of Repair.org, said in the announcement video.

BMW biggest loser in Worst list

Car company BMW notched two entries into the worst list, the only company to do so.

“We have seen an increasing number of horrific stories where people, generally women, who are trying to escape abusive domestic situations end up having their cars serve as tracking and abuse vectors,” Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.

BMW also earned an award for a pair of augmented reality glasses that Cory Doctrow of the EFF said would be, “a recipe for distracted driving” and would lead to advertising in a driver’s view.

“This is not a company you want to give control over your field of vision to,” Doctrow said.

BMW Group defended its products via an email to the Associated Press.

“BMW and Amazon share a strong commitment to maintaining customers’ trust and protecting their privacy, including giving them control over their data,” spokesperson Jay Hanson wrote in the email. Hanson also said that minimizing driver distraction was a key principle in what the company rolls out to customers.

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