CNN: The End of Privacy?
See our earlier blog post on why privacy is not anonymity.
Add comment November 20th, 2009
CEO Fran Maier wins a Stevie!
Last Friday, TRUSTe’s own Fran Maier won a Stevie Award for Best Executive. Way to go Fran! She was honored out of hundreds of candidates for her outstanding accomplishments as CEO of TRUSTe for the past eight years. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. One of four Award categories, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are presented to well-rounded women who have accomplished both personal and professional achievements and have made positive contributions to the organizations they run as well as to the lives of other business professionals worldwide. Check out the full list of Stevie Award winners at: http://www.stevieawards.com
You can follow Fran on Twitter at @franmaier
Add comment November 18th, 2009
TRUSTe @ 2009 Cross Border Data Flows Conference
Maureen Cooney, TRUSTe’s Chief Privacy Officer and VP for Public Policy, spoke at the 2009 Conference on Cross Border Data Flows, Protection and Privacy, in Washington DC today about TRUSTe’s EU Safe Harbor Seal Program. She outlined the requirements of the program and how companies go through the process of getting certified.
In keeping with the theme of accountability mentioned in remarks by US Commerce Department, FTC and EU Data Protection officials, Maureen detailed the workings of TRUSTe’s Watchdog issue resolution program. She noted that it handles consumer complaints in 33 languages and has a 100 percent resolution track record.
Fran Maier will be speaking on behavioral advertising and privacy tomorrow at the conference.
Add comment November 17th, 2009
Congrats to eBay on European Privacy Approval
TRUSTe seal holder eBay is now the first e-commerce company to receive approval from Luxembourg’s National Data Protection Commission on their rules for the protection of customer and employee privacy in European countries. These new rules, called “Binding Corporate Rules” (BCR), demonstrate eBay’s commitment to meet European data privacy standards when it comes to transferring and using customer and employee personal information overseas.
Also, eBay became the first company to win approval for both employe and customer BCRs in less than 12 months time! That comes as little surprise, however, when you consider that eBay came in at the number 2 spot on TRUSTe’s ranking of Most Trusted Companies for Privacy in 2009.
Congrats and keep up the good work eBay!
Add comment November 11th, 2009
VIDEO: Cloud Computing Explained
Add comment November 4th, 2009
New Facebook Privacy Policy
Last Thursday Facebook (a TRUSTe seal holder) unveiled its new privacy policy and submitted it for public comment (which will end 12:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 5). This announcement follows through on Facebook’s pledge to provide users with even greater transparency and choice when it comes to information collection and sharing on the website. TRUSTe commends Facebook for its continued innovation in the privacy field by allowing users to directly participate, permitting them to both comment and vote on policy changes at the company.
TRUSTe has worked with Facebook’s team in reviewing their new privacy policy and we’re giving it two thumbs up. Here at TRUSTe we value a diversity of privacy perspectives and we encourage you to contribute if you have opinions or ideas regarding these new changes at Facebook.
Add comment November 2nd, 2009
[VIDEO] Social Networking: The Challenges of Privacy and Openness
Check out video below from the event “Social Networking: The Challenges of Privacy and Openness”, which TRUSTe jointly hosted with the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) at Google’s Mountain View (CA) campus last month. Speakers include:
-Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU Northern California
-David Glazer, Engineering Director, Google, and Board member, OpenSocial Foundation
-Tim Sparapani, Director of Public Policy, Facebook.
You can find video of the event in its entirety at CDT’s YouTube homepage located here.
Add comment November 2nd, 2009
TRUSTe CEO to Speak at OTA Conference
On Thursday, October 29, I will be speaking at the Online Trust and Brand Protection Summit, a conference aimed at addressing how today’s leading online brands can augment consumer protection and brand reputation, and learn industry best practices for building and maintaining consumer trust. I look forward to joining other industry experts on a panel entitled, “Treating Consumers & Site Visitors as Family vs. Foes,” to discuss how online businesses can create policies and practices that encourage consumer confidence. The panel will review different methods and approaches to providing consumers notice of potential threats and creating policies that are transparent while building trust and confidence.
As e-commerce continues to expand and become increasingly competitive, brand reputation becomes even more vital to business success. Without consumer trust and confidence, a brand cannot survive in today’s cutthroat e-commerce environment. I encourage online businesses of all sizes to attend this Summit and be exposed to invaluable tools and advice on developing and maintaining a protected and trusted online business.
For more information about the Summit please visit the OTA website: https://www.otalliance.org/events/Phila09.html
- Fran Maier, CEO
Add comment October 26th, 2009
Venture Capitalist Superstar and TRUSTe Board Member!
Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners (and a TRUSTe Boardmember) was interviewed on CNBC as part of the channel’s week-long series on women and power.
Add comment October 23rd, 2009
Toward Privacy 2.0
“Forget privacy” because it is “just an illusion” urged Andrea DiMaio of Gartner Research in a recent blog post. Others claim our world of widespread information sharing (Facebook, Twitter, blogging etc.) is fundamentally at odds with privacy. Some even go so far as to claim that privacy is dead.
But privacy is not anonymity. Anonymity depends on how much or how little you share about yourself. Privacy, on the other hand, concerns your ability to share your personal information selectively. That people today willingly share copious amounts of personal information online does not automatically compromise their privacy. Rather, privacy is compromised when users’ information sharing preferences and expectations are not respected and upheld.
The act of sharing personal information is not, you see, a privacy problem. As Bob Blakely of the Burton Group smartly observes in his recent blog post on the topic, “privacy is the problem you have after you share personal information”. So let’s call it “privacy 2.0” and do away with this outdated understanding of privacy as “keeping information secret” or “not sharing any information at all”.
We live in an increasingly networked world and we have to share information to participate. Our job then is to ensure consumers have choices when it comes to information sharing and that those choices are respected. That’s privacy 2.0 and it’s already here: Facebook (a TRUSTe seal holder) provides its users with impressive options to selectively share information. If Facebook users chose not to use these management tools it’s a matter of personal preference, not a sign that privacy is dying. When we live in an age where there are even online privacy options for the deceased it pretty clear that privacy is not dead.
Add comment October 19th, 2009
