TRUSTe Applauds New FTC Behavioral Marketing Principles

This month, the Federal Trade Commission issued its highly anticipated staff report on Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, a report that represents important guidance to the online advertising industry at a critical time. At TRUSTe, we address these principles on a daily basis when working with the sites we certify. We want to thank the FTC for recognizing the need for formal guidance surrounding behavioral advertising.

Expectations for data privacy online continue to evolve. On one end, we encourage companies to aim for a creative and engaging online experience for users, but as a whole, companies need to provide transparency to consumers about how their information is used.

TRUSTe also recently announced the release of the Online Behavioral Advertising: A Checklist of Practices that Impact Consumer Trust whitepaper, a general update on the evolving behavioral advertising environment.

We look forward to continuing our work with the FTC to address online trust issues that affect both businesses and their customers.

American Express, eBay and IBM named 2008's "Most Trusted Companies for Privacy"

The Ponemon Institute along with TRUSTe, recently announced the results of the fifth annual survey of 2008's Most Trusted Companies for Privacy. American Express, eBay, IBM, Amazon and Johnson & Johnson rounded out the top five.

The technology sector also showed marked improvement as eBay, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and HP all bettered previous rankings. Also of note, Facebook moved into the top 20 for the first time, signifying an increased trust in social networking as a mainstream communications tool.

Of the top 20 companies named, 13 certify their Web site privacy with TRUSTe. We are excited that our efforts to build trust for our sealholders have resonated with consumers on this level, and we see these results as a coup for the TRUSTe brand as consumers increasingly associate “trust” with “TRUSTe.”

Download the corresponding 1/21/09 Webinar.

Tip: If you must have third parties mailing on your behalf, check the list of intended recipients against your Do-Not-Email list.

Read some tips on how to protect yourself when it comes to third party mailers:

1. Get them to accept a cryptographically hashed version of the list.
   This lets them see if addresses they were planning to mail must be removed, without letting them know addresses they didn't have to begin with.
2. Insert in the list a secret "seed" e-mail address that's unique to each partner (keep track).
   If that unique address starts getting unauthorized mail, it can help identify which partner caused the leak.

Got Feedback?

We would like to hear what you think of the TRUSTe Advocate. Send an email with your comments and suggestions to newsletter@truste.com.

TRUSTe is an independent organization that administers the Internet's first and largest privacy seal program.

55 2nd Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 520-3400 Email: privacyseals@truste.com Web: www.truste.com

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.

TRUSTe Webinar:
Online Behavioral Advertising
Date: March, 2009
Stay tuned!

TRUSTe-CDT Internet Policy Series
Behavioral Advertising - Monetization versus Privacy - Navigating the Policy Risks
March 4
Sunnyvale, CA

IAPP Summit 09'
March 11-13
Washington, DC

ad:tech San Francisco
April 21-23
San Francisco, CA

1040Now
ADS Security, Inc.
average1040.com
Certified Debt Solutions
InjuryBoard.com
Comergence Compliance Monitoring
GiveReal
Global Gold & Silver
goedeker television co inc
Gold Giant Internet, LLC
innovationrx
iSecureTax Inc.
John Galt Refining LLC
MX Logic, Inc.
OOKISA llc
Professional Aptitude Council
RedlineTickets.com
Resolution Research
Roblox Corporation
Send Technology, Inc.
SHUTTLEFARE.COM, LLC
Somo Enterprises, Inc.
Traffic dude
UniFocus, LLC

Congratulations!