TRUSTE PARTNERS WITH NETCREATIONS TO INCREASE CONSUMER CONFIDENCE AROUND COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

San Francisco, CA – October 12, 2004 – TRUSTe, the leading online privacy certification and seal program, today announced that it has partnered with NetCreations, Inc., the leading permission-based list management company, to test a new TRUSTe anti-spam and email protection service for consumers that will hold list owners to a high standard of email address privacy and permission. The new website point-of-collection initiative is designed to increase consumer confidence when providing their email address and other personal information online.

“There is a huge Anti-spam effort underway but no program or initiative speaks directly to the consumer” says Michael Mayor, President of NetCreations, the list acquisition and data division of email performance management company Return Path, Inc. “TRUSTe’s new seal program will increase accountability and credibility at the point of sign-up and give consumers the added assurance they need in order to click the submit button”

The new initiative will be tested in market over the next few months, during which feedback from all participants will be gathered and analyzed, the standards for list owners finalized and the name and web-based seal design created. All list owners involved in the test are under NetCreations’ management.

“E-mail is one of the most effective mediums for businesses to communicate with their customers, but the value is marginalized if consumers don’t feel empowered,” said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “TRUSTe is pleased to work with NetCreations to develop new point-of-collection methods for educating consumers on the use of their personal information.”

This partnership illustrates TRUSTe’s ongoing commitment to team with industry, consumers and privacy advocates and apply privacy standards through certification and third-party e-mail monitoring. The TRUSTe-NetCreations partnership will provide further assurance to consumers on how their personal information is collected and used.

About NetCreations, Inc.
NetCreations is the list and data division of Return Path, the leading email performance management company. NetCreations pioneered and patented the "Double Opt-in" list building process which anti-spam groups, ISPs, legislators, industry trade groups, marketers and consumers agree is the highest bar of permission. More than 1,500 marketers and 400 list owners have used Return Path to grow their house-lists, increase response rates and improve the deliverability of their e-mail programs through its list acquisition and maintenance, e-mail deliverability, and strategic best practice solutions. For more information, please visit www.returnpath.net, e-mail info@returnpath.net, or call toll-free 866-362-4577..

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About TRUSTe
TRUSTe is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information in the evolving networked world.

Founded in 1997, TRUSTe runs an award-winning global privacy certification and seal program. Its seal programs are considered Safe Harbors for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU Safe Harbor Framework. Today, TRUSTe maintains the largest privacy seal program with more than 1,400 Web sites certified throughout the world including AOL, Microsoft, IBM, Nationwide and The New York Times. TRUSTe's mission extends standards, certification and oversight into email with Bonded Sender and wireless with the Wireless Advisory Committee. For more information on TRUSTe please visit www.truste.org.

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