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You may have seen the TRUSTe Privacy Seal on many of your favorite Web sites such as Apple, eBay, Facebook, Monster.com and The New York Times. This ubiquitous seal marks 2,400+ Web sites that are dedicated to protecting your privacy. On June 11, TRUSTe will commemorate its 10th anniversary by introducing a modernized version of its former logo, retaining the TRUSTe name and its familiar green and black colors.
TRUSTe’s Web Privacy Seal means that a Web site keeps its promises to protect your privacy, and allows you to have a choice about the use and sharing of your personal information.
Subjecting Web sites to tough standards and rigorous testing since 1997, TRUSTe has been:
1) Making sure that Web sites treat your identity and email address with respect and transparency. Any Web site with the TRUSTe seal will give you the right to access your information, delete your information, and give you a choice to keep it private. Not every Web site can meet TRUSTe’s tough standards. The privacy statement and TRUSTe approval can be validated by clicking on the seal or visiting the TRUSTe Web site.
2) Monitoring any changes to a sealholder’s Web site or promises. The TRUSTe seal on a Web site means that the site can be trusted to keep the promises it makes in its privacy statement. TRUSTe regularly monitors Web sites’ adherence to their privacy statements and has the power to enforce compliance with its program. In 2006, TRUSTe conducted 24 investigations of sealholders and revoked the seal in a number of those cases.
3) Resolving your individual privacy-related complaints. If you believe your privacy has been violated on a Web site displaying the TRUSTe seal, contact TRUSTe directly by registering a complaint on TRUSTe’s Watchdog complaint form at http://www.truste.org/watchdog. This is a unique service to help you guard and protect your individual personal information.
Look for the TRUSTe seal and ask your favorite Web sites to make sure they are protecting your privacy by joining TRUSTe.
For more information on TRUSTe and its new look, visit www.truste.org.
June 11th, 2007
TRUSTe has successfully certified twelve software applications in the Trusted Download Program Beta to date, and a dozen more are in the process of certification. Over the past few months the focus of the Beta program has moved from certifying software to monitoring the distribution networks of certified software.
As applications enter and leave the whitelist for either voluntarily or through investigation and compliance actions, TRUSTe will notate the additions and departures through the TRUSTe blog to provide additional detail to interested parties. This is the first notice on withdrawal of a software application from the whitelist.
Vomba 1.2.0.1 is no longer listed in the whitelist and its distribution and technical operation are no longer monitored by TRUSTe.
TRUSTe certified the software application Vomba 1.2.0.1 and placed the application on the whitelist in provisional status in February. In order for any covered advertising or covered tracking application to maintain certification status they must also certify their distribution partners and subject those partners to TRUSTe monitoring on an ongoing basis.
Vomba began rolling out its distribution network after certification, and always communicated in good faith with TRUSTe during the planning and initial deployment phases of the network. Unfortunately, as Vomba considered scaling their distribution network, they decided that the cost associated with maintaining that network within the Trusted Download Program Beta were not consistent with their financial objectives.Vomba was additionally exploring new and creative distribution methods, particularly in the peer-to-peer market. Vomba would have been required to discontinue this approach.
TRUSTe was actively engaged in an exploration into the level of separation between Vomba and another entity under the corporate umbrella. We ultimately did not reach a conclusion on this matter, but were in the process of requiring additional process and further certifications of Vomba’s corporate neighbors, given the lack of clarity on boundaries.
To be clear, TRUSTe did not embark on an enforcement process with Vomba. Vomba has made a business decision that they no longer want to make the financial commitment to maintain certification, with the cost of their growing distribution network playing a primary role.
Posted by: Colin O’Malley
June 11th, 2007
A study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University Usable Privacy and Security Labs found that consumers choosing to purchase among retailers providing easily accessible privacy information, were willing to pay a premium on websites with more protective privacy practices. The search engine designed for the experiment offered a five-point scale that could match P3P machine-readable privacy statements to the test subject’s privacy preferences for using information. It has long been thought that internet shoppers considered privacy as an afterthought in their purchasing decisions. However, TRUSTe sealholders that have been testing the impact of privacy seals on transactions have known all along that making privacy accessible, reassuring and protective, can build trust and increase engagement. This study offers more evidence that good privacy = good business.
Read the full paper (.pdf)
June 7th, 2007
About ten years ago a bunch of folks from internet startups, and the EFF, and others, were cooking up the concept of a self-regulatory framework for internet privacy. After lots of starts and stops, and one grueling labor, the first standards for internet privacy statements and a list of TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal certified websites were birthed in 1997.
Today, we unveiled the first eight software applications certified to the Trusted Download standards. Ten years later Trusted Download has been a labour of love similar to our webseal. In some ways TRUSTe has taken learning from its previous programs to give TDP a running start, and in other areas the program is breaking new ground. The Anti-spyware Coalition provided the foundation for TDP, by hammering out definitions for spyware and nusiance programs in 2005 - these formed the prohibited behaviors in our certification agreements.
It has taken years for TRUSTe to build its privacy program requirements from mere disclosure, “say what you do,” into an aspirational set of standards that now include a prohibition on sharing of information without consent. For TDP we wanted to launch a program that began with the highest standards, instead of working up to them. We convened the internet‘s most influential companies - Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, CA, CNET to ensure that no one entity or viewpoint influenced the standards too greatly. Although they aren’t program sponsors, the program requirements include provisions that Google and others contributed to the process. And we included important players such as the Center for Democracy and Technology from the beginning and in the ongoing advisory committee to the program.
If the launch of the web seal program and its subsequent development is any indicator, we are in for serious growing pains. We’re anticipating a learning process. Self-regulation is an ecosystem, and an essential part of the range of solutions that help make the internet a more trusted place. We welcome constructive feedback on the program, with the understanding that this is just the beginnng of changing the market.
Fran Maier, Executive Director
February 15th, 2007
The New York Attorney General announced that three of the largest online advertisers Priceline, Cingular and Travelocity, had agreed to pay $100,000 to end a probe into advertising through deceptively installed programs by Direct Revenue, Inc. This develoment follows on Federal Trade Commission settlements with major adware publisher Zango, and Center for Democracy and Technology — ‘Follow the Money’ reports detailing the adware economic model.
“Advertisers will now be held responsible when their ads end up on consumers’ computers without full notice and consent,” said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The agreements require each advertiser to deliver ads only through advertising sotware with informed consent to download and control over the software and uninstall. Priceline, has a posted adware policy here, stating their corporate policy against advertising through adware.
Enter, the Trusted Download whitelist.
TRUSTe will announce the initial round of certified Trusted Download software applications in two weeks. Limited to software applications which provide notice, consent and control, the Whitelist is designed to be a tool for advertisers and thier agents to select partners with safe, nuisance-free software.
February 1st, 2007
In a New Year’s resolution speech to the Association of National Advertisers, FTC Chairman, Deborah Platt Majoras offered advice and warned advertisers about complicity with intrusive adware, encouraging the exercise of self-regulation.
“The message for you is that advertisers need to be vigilant to ensure that their advertising dollars do not fund – either deliberately or inadvertently – illegal activity. You need to understand just how your Internet advertising reaches consumers. If you choose to advertise via adware, it is important that you select adware providers who ensure that consumers receive adequate notice of and knowingly consent to the installation of the adware, have a meaningful way of monitoring their distribution channels, allow consumers to uninstall their adware easily, and otherwise respect consumers’ rights. This is an area where policing by the advertising industry is critical to creating a culture of security and respect for consumer privacy. If you do not do so, you risk undermining consumer confidence in the Internet as a vehicle for commercial information and transactions.”
TRUSTe is leading the internet industry with the Trusted Download program, to give control to users of downloadable software of all types including, yes, adware. More information on Trusted Download which provides clear standards, certifies safe software behavior and monitors distribution networks; can be found here: www.trusteddownload.org
January 22nd, 2007
Ellen Nakashima gives a great minute-by-minute account of one woman’s digital trail in the Washington Post today. Follows the many data points collected everyday by surveillance equipment, convenience technologies such as FastTrak, and everyday online activities.
January 17th, 2007
TRUSTe just completed a survey of consumers on security breach notice and we’ll soon be releasing some data on how residents of states with breach notice requirements fared versus residents of states without breach notice requirements. Lucky for California’s stats we conducted the survey prior to the UCLA data breach. I received my first breach notice yesterday, not from my bank or credit card company, I had applied to a UCLA program in 1997.
I’ve been reading through Kim Cameron’s whitepapers on digital identity, namely the 7 Laws of Identity which I think sums up nicely what was broken at UCLA, “We should build systems that employ identifying information on the basis that a breach is always possible. Such a breach represents a risk. To mitigate risk, it is best to acquire information only on a “need to know” basis, and to retain it only on a “need to retain” basis. By following these practices, we can ensure the least possible damage in the event of a breach.”
December 15th, 2006
Today’s AP story, Privacy Options limited for Net services, highlights TRUSTe as an advocate for consumer choice, and mentions one exemplary sealholder, E-LOAN as offering exceptional choice when it comes to personal privacy. TRUSTe has reviewed tens of thousands of privacy policies, and E-LOAN’s is simply one of the best. One reason why they won our award for being a Most Trusted Company for Privacy this year.
Transparency, ensures that consumers are informed of the bargain. Accurate disclosure of practices also empowers consumers to encourage service providers to change thier practices. Facebook, another TRUSTe sealholder, is an excellent example of the importance of good disclosure and responsiveness to privacy issues. They handled customer concerns quickly and responsively - that’s also building trust.
- Posted by Carolyn Hodge
October 13th, 2006
As a result of investigating the HP Board pretexting scandal, CNET reporter/blogger David Berlind suggests to powers that be, that CNET/ZDNet should disclose outbound clear .gif tracking in thier email newsletters. And guess what, they agreed!
“So, sometime this week, once we’ve had a chance to adjust our newsletter templates, you will begin to see a text disclosure (probably at the bottom) that mentions the usage of trackable elements in the HTML versions of the daily and weekly editions of Tech Update.”
Bravo! We’ll be interested to see if subscribers, notice or comment on the disclosure.
October 2nd, 2006
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