The EDAA Trust Seal Certification
Data collectors are rightfully concerned about the rise in today’s privacy concerns, as 9 out of 10 consumers avoid doing business with companies that do not protect their online privacy. These complexities, as well as the start of self-regulatory enforcement by the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA), are placing 3rd Party data collectors at risk and can lead to potential consequences of hefty legal fees, fines, and lawsuits for non-compliance.
Powered by TRUSTe, the EDAA Trust Seal Certification reduces privacy risks for any company doing Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) in the EU market.
As an EDAA-approved certification provider, TRUSTe is responsible for independently assessing and validating a company’s compliance with the European Principles on OBA and issuing the EDAA Trust Seal to companies that demonstrate they meet the standards required. Companies that successfully complete certification receive a detailed report outlining TRUSTe’s findings and are awarded the EDAA Trust Seal to easily demonstrate to regulators, potential partners, or consumers their compliance with privacy best practices in the EU for data collection.
In order to be certified, companies must first satisfy the program requirements and undergo a review of data collection activities including:
- Review cookies and other technologies the company uses to collect data through third party domains.
- Review and testing of opt-out and consent mechanisms and processes.
- Ensure the privacy policy clearly and accurately describes the company’s OBA data collection and use practices.
- If required, check for proper implementation of EDAA-compliant notice and choice mechanism.
- Review of data management policies including accountability mechanisms, data retention, and security policy.
- Review audience segments ensuring appropriate level of notice and consent if sensitive segments are used for targeting.
The EDAA Trust Seal Certification helps you:
- Protect your brand from privacy risks through detailed audits and certifications, thus helping ensure compliance with self-regulatory frameworks
- Minimize Compliance Risk by helping ensure your practices are aligned with EU self regulatory criteria and best practices, thus building trust amongst your partners who are more willing to work with you
- Shorten sales cycles with new customers and deepens the trust in your existing business relationships
Key Features
Privacy certifications follow a comprehensive and proven multi-step process to ensure your privacy practices meet applicable regulatory and industry standards.
Data Collection & Discovery
The EDAA Trust Seal certification begins with a review of your data privacy management practices. We work with you to identify a range of information including what data you collect, how you use it, who you share it with, third party agreements, use of trackers, privacy disclosures, opt-outs, and much more. We also review your stated privacy practices and policies. The TRUSTe team uses a combination of methodologies including a manual evaluation of your privacy practices by our team of privacy analysts, company interviews and on-site engagements, and digital property scanning tools.
Privacy Findings Report & Gap Analysis
We present you with a Privacy Findings Report summarizing a gap analysis between your privacy practices and the EDAA Certification Standards along with the changes you need to make to your data privacy management practices and privacy policies to achieve certification.
Certified Privacy Seal
Once we validate that you’ve implemented the changes outlined in the Privacy Findings Report, you get access to the EDAA Trust Seal. You can display the seal both on your privacy statement as well as in other prominent places like your website home page and site footer to demonstrate your commitment to privacy.
Letter of Attestation
Once certification is complete, you can request a letter of attestation that your company is a TRUSTe client that has undergone a review and alignment with the certification program requirements. This attestation can be shared with your business partners as part of RFP’s and other process reviews, providing competitive differentiation.
Ongoing Privacy Guidance
The EDAA Trust Seal Certification also provides you with access to ongoing privacy guidance as it relates to your TRUSTe certification, including new regulations, product plans, geographic expansion, and acquisitions. You’ll get access to TRUSTe Privacy Solutions experts along with Educational Webinars, Seminars, White Papers, and Research Reports.
TRUSTe Privacy Professionals
TRUSTe Privacy Services are delivered by our Privacy Consultants and Privacy Services Managers, a team of recognized data privacy experts with significant experience conducting privacy assessments. Our team has a unique hybrid background of privacy, technology, business process, and project management experience. All are CIPP trained or certified, many have law degrees, and have hands-on experience working for a wide range of companies including Adobe, American Express, Citrix, Comcast, HSBC Bank, IBM, Kimberly-Clark, Microsoft, Pfizer, and many more.
Our privacy team leverages nearly 20 years experience delivering data privacy management solutions for thousands of global brands along with our comprehensive technology platform. We also have key regulatory relationships and are a leading provider of privacy services supporting regulatory and self-regulatory compliance programs for a wide range of agencies including APEC, DOC, DAA, EDAA, and FTC.
TRUSTe Technology Platform
Our Data Privacy Management Services leverage the TRUSTe Platform, a comprehensive, SaaS technology solution that provides state of the art assessment management, compliance control, and website scanning / monitoring capabilities.
Resources
For additional resources, please visit our resource center.