is otherwise written in a promotional tone . please help by either rewriting this article from a neutral point of view or by moving this article to wikinews . when appropriate blatant advertising may be marked for speedy deletion with db spam . april 2014 truste type private industry internet privacy founded 1997 headquarters 835 market street san francisco california usa key people ceo chris babel cfo tim sullivan vp product kevin trilli vp marketing dave deasy number of employees 130 website www.truste.com truste based in san francisco california with additional offices in london united kingdom and cebu city philippines provides privacy consulting certifications and technology tools to help businesses manage privacy compliance risk . the company incorporates regulatory requirements and industry best practices from the united states and north america european union and asia pacific regions into its review of digital properties . 1 contents 1 history 2 products 3 meaning of truste seal 4 enforcement 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit truste originally named etrust until a copyright conflict was found was founded as a non profit industry association in 1997 by lori fena then executive director of the electronic frontier foundation eff and charles jennings a software entrepreneur with the mission of fostering online commerce by helping businesses and other online organizations self regulate privacy concerns . 2 toward this end truste launched its flagship privacy seal program providing privacy seals to websites who abide by a set of fair information privacy practices and agreed to participate in the company s consumer privacy dispute resolution service . 3 truste was developed from an earlier program named privacy assured launched in 1996 by tim dick ceo of worldpages which was later acquired by bt . the initial five members were match.com four11 yahoo netangels i pro first web metrics company and worldpages . within two months over 30 companies had joined privacy assured with more waiting . privacy assured approached eff about setting up an independent entity and learned that eff was contemplating an internet privacy initiative . tim dick brought in his former colleagues at boston consulting group which did a landmark pro bono study which established much of the internet privacy principles in use today and on which truste remains built . truste s founding executive director susan yamada formerly editor of upside magazine served until 2001 . in 2000 truste became the first organization to join the u.s. department of commerce s and the european union s safe harbor framework and subsequently launched its eu safe harbor seal program . 3 the us eu safe harbor was agreed upon by the u.s. department of commerce and the european union to provide a framework for american companies to comply with european data and privacy standards . in 2001 truste became a children s online privacy protection act coppa safe harbor organization for the federal trade commission 4 and thereafter launched its children s privacy seal program . fran maier co founder of match.com 5 joined truste as executive director in 2001 . 6 one of the first efforts was to address consumer issues with spam or unwanted email . 7 maier resigned her position in 2012 . in 2008 truste changed its structure from a non profit industry association to a venture backed for profit company raising its first round of capital from accel ventures . this raised questions about whether the organization is appropriately tough on the companies it certifies . 8 chris babel former senior vice president of verisign s worldwide authentication services joined truste as chief executive officer in november 2009 . 9 in 2013 truste was approved by the european interactive digital advertising alliance edaa as an official certification provider for the eu self regulatory programme for online behavioural advertising oba . 10 the same year truste was named the first approved accountability agent for the asia pacific economic cooperation apec cross border privacy rules cbpr system . 11 on nov 17th 2014 the federal trade commission announced that truste had agreed to 12 settle charges that it deceived consumers about its recertification program and perpetuated its misrepresentation as a non profit entity against a 200 000 penalty . from 2006 to 2013 truste failed in over 1000 instances to conduct annual privacy checks on the companies it certified . 13 consumer organizations the center for digital democracy and the consumer federation of america argued for higher penalties and more ftc oversight but the ftc declined to increase the penalties . 14 products edit privacy assessments binding corporate rules bcrs eu safe harbor privacy certifications trusted apps trusted cloud trusted data trusted downloads trusted smart grid trusted websites apec privacy children s privacy edaa trust seal certification monitoring tools website monitoring app monitoring dispute resolution compliance controls trusted ads consent manager meaning of truste seal edit the truste seal does not indicate that a web site complies with any specific set of privacy rules such as the european union s data protection directive . it indicates only that the site has self certified as complying with the site s own privacy statement and truste s program requirements . 15 enforcement edit truste claims to enforce its privacy rules and operates a watchdog operation which accepts consumer complaints . truste described its enforcement process in a filing with the u.s. federal trade commission in 2000 . 16 from 2000 to june 2004 truste published watchdog reports reporting their enforcement actions . 17 the final report for june 2004 shows 256 reports received and 130 reports closed . all 130 reports were resolved with issue handled with no changes necessary to the privacy statement nor the site . in no case was an enforcement action taken . in 2004 no enforcement actions were taken . in 2003 one enforcement action was taken out of over a thousand complaints . 17 after june 2004 truste ceased reporting on enforcement actions despite the statement in its ftc filing that it would publish such reports at least twice a year . in 2012 truste published a transparency report which did not list individual enforcement actions but did indicate that after over 4000 consumer complaints truste took only 9 enforcement actions during 2012 3 of which resulted in termination of truste endorsement . 18 dr. benjamin edelman of the harvard business school found in january 2006 that sites with truste certification were 50 % more likely to violate privacy policies than uncertified sites . 19 dr. edelman has also reported that truste does not go far enough to punish seal holders that break truste s rules and that the organization is not quick enough in revoking the seal on companies that violate privacy standards . 20 in 2002 wired magazine questioned whether truste could be trusted noting that rather than revoking privacy seals for violations truste officials often seemed to be covering for their clients . 21 in 2008 a galexia consulting study reported that truste had terminated only one customer for non compliance in the previous eleven years despite a number of significant privacy violations which had received press coverage . the most significant criticism of trustmarks is that in practice they have proved to be virtually worthless in the face of major privacy breaches . their privacy standards are low to begin with but even these rules are simply not enforced against large paying members . see also edit verisign webtrust references edit operating geos . yahoo finance . 25 june 2013 . the hundredth window protecting your privacy and security in the age of the internet . simon and schuster free press . retrieved 2008 08 19 . a b http judiciary.house.gov legacy fena 071201.htm children s privacy seal angwin julia 1998 02 12 . media innovation must come from the free market . the san francisco chronicle . interagency public workshop get noticed effective financial privacy notices . privacy group to put seal on spam . cnet . hansell saul july 15 2008 . will the profit motive undermine trust in truste . new york times . truste management . truste . retrieved 2008 06 30 . edaa certification . apec certification . ftc press release . wyattnov edward nov 17 2014 . f.t.c. penalizes truste a web privacy certification company . new york times . davis wendy march 18 2015 . truste finalizes settlement with ftc . media post . privacy program requirements . truste . 2011 . archived from the original on october 8 2011 . truste web site privacy seal compliance escalation process pdf . federal trade commission . 2000 . a b truste watchdog reports . truste . 2008 . archived from the original on 2012 04 02 . truste transparency report for 2012 . truste . 2012 . edelman benjamin september 25 2006 . certifications and site trustworthiness . retrieved 2008 07 03 . edelman benjamin march 18 2008 . coupons.com and truste lots of talk too little action . retrieved 2008 07 03 . boutin paul april 9 2002 . just how trusty is truste . wired . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title truste & oldid 738185408 categories internet privacy organizationspolitics and technologyself regulatory organizationscompanies established in 1997hidden categories articles with a promotional tone from april 2014all articles with a promotional tonepages using infobox company with unsupported parametersofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 7 september 2016 at 12 48 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view