The TRUSTe Advocate

Anti-Phishing Strategies: The Never-Ending Battle
by Kris Bortz

Every month, Visa is hit by 25 to 60 phishing attacks involving urgent emails purporting to be from the company. Phishing attacks are detrimental to the Visa brand and have the potential to create consumer distrust in online shopping and banking. So what is Visa doing about it? So far, aiding in the creation of the first global anti-phishing aggregation service, working with law enforcement bodies worldwide, and investing significantly in anti-fraud technologies. More...

Shopping.com and TRUSTe Team Up To Better Protect Online Shoppers

Shopping.com, the leading shopping-comparison site, will now begin to require merchants identified on its site as “Trusted Stores” to have their privacy policies independently certified by TRUSTe in order to maintain their Trusted Store listing. This combination of user experience ratings and third-party oversight of privacy practices fosters a secure environment in which customers and merchants can both conduct business. More...

TRUSTe’s Consumer Outreach Efforts Continue

During the week of October 24, TRUSTe’s name was published in a Consumer Reports WebWatch advertisement in the top three U.S. national daily newspapers -- the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today -- reaching a total of more than 5 million consumers. Consumer Reports WebWatch commissioned this advertisement to honor Web sites that have pledged to abide by the organization's five guidelines to honor consumer trust online. TRUSTe’s name also appears on the organization’s Web site.

Following on the heels of last month’s consumer-oriented article on how to differentiate between third-party online seals, TRUSTe just posted an article on its Web site about how to tell if an online authentification seal is valid. You are welcome use this article in your own privacy education campaigns. Feel free to link to these two articles on the TRUSTe Web site. If you would like to reproduce them in your branded materials, contact Carolyn Hodge at chodge@truste.org.

Policy Flash: Data Security Breach Notification

The October 2005 issue of Policy Flash, TRUSTe’s e-newsletter tracking privacy policy and legislation, focuses on security breach notification legislation. Though the e-newsletter is only available to TRUSTe members, we are making public an article by TRUSTe's policy team on the practical steps companies can take to prepare for a possible data breach. More...

Fall-Winter KnowledgeNet Schedule Announced

We have just posted the fall-winter schedule of KnowledgeNets! TRUSTe-IAPP KnowledgeNet events are free local networking luncheons open to all TRUSTe sealholders and IAPP members. Each KnowledgeNet features a speaker covering a top-of-mind privacy issue, followed by an opportunity for networking. More...

Tip: To build your email list, as well as consumer trust, at the time you collect email addresses you should disclose how they will be used.
by Eileen Rico

Continuing in a series of tech tips on how to improve your email privacy practices. More...

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The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributing authors. TRUSTe presents these views as a service to our members, and does not necessarily share or endorse these views.