TRUSTe - Make Privacy Your Choice

6/01 – AskJeeves Acquisition of eTour & PII

Ask Jeeves to Work with TRUSTe to Provide Consumers Notice and Choice Over Privacy Practices During Transition of Personal Information from eTour

TRUSTe Determines eTour did not Meet its Obligation to Consumer Privacy When it did not Notify and Gain Approval from Third Party Oversight Organization

June 15, 2001 – TRUSTe today advises consumers that Ask Jeeves will follow TRUSTe's Guidelines on Mergers, Acquisitions and Bankruptcies by assuming the eTour privacy policy and providing consumers with notice of and choice over the transfer of personal information to eTour.

TRUSTe today also determined that eTour, a participant in the TRUSTe Privacy Seal Program, did not meet its obligation to consumer privacy when it neglected to notify and gain approval from TRUSTe to transfer its customer information to Ask Jeeves. As highlighted in the Guidelines for Mergers, Acquisitions and Bankruptcies, third party oversight is an important safeguard for consumers during the business transition process. Ask Jeeves has, however, engaged with TRUSTe during the business transition process.

Ask Jeeves is taking a number of steps to ensure the integrity of the eTour consumer privacy statement. Specifically, Ask Jeeves will provide:

Notice and Choice – Ask Jeeves has already provided eTour customers with notice and choice over information handling practices. Specifically, consumers have been notified of the recent eTour transaction and were given the opportunity to opt-out of the sharing and use of personal information. If a consumer chooses to opt-out, Ask Jeeves will delete their personal information.

Opt-In – If Ask Jeeves at any point decides to use the eTour customer information in any way substantially different from the manner outlined in the eTour privacy statement, Ask Jeeves will obtain express consent, or opt-in, from those customers.

Third Party Oversight – Ask Jeeves will work with TRUSTe to expand privacy certification on other portions of Ask Jeeves' Web sites in order to allow its customers full control over personal information through the fair information practice tenets of notice, choice, access, security and redress.

Due to the fact that Ask Jeeves is a "successor in interest" and will not alter the uses of personal information from the originally stated purposes, TRUSTe found that both notice and choice via opt-out were required for the safety of consumers.

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