PRIVACY SEALS

The June 11, 1999 issue of the Chicago Tribunes "Your Money" Insertion provided the above article by Lisa Guernsey..New York Times News Service.Because of the time fence, it is required that you pay for copy.

Three (3) Main Seal programs have popped up during the last few years.

The Seal Programs are being touted by leading companies in electronic commerce as the best way to protect consumers without resorting to federal legislation: a few examples of which are starting to make their way through congress

But some consumer-advocacy groups have major doubts about whether the seals truly signify the level of protection people want. And they stress that a privacy seal for a Web site does not mean that the site will refrain from giving another company information about you.

* In many cases, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center: the seals " are just a colorful link to a privacy policy that can say almost anything."

People on both sides of the debate do agree on one thing. Many, if not most, web users are not yet familiar with the concept of privacy seals.

The idea behind the seals, proponents of the programs say, is to increase consumers' comfort levels with electronic commerce. " If a seal program's agreement with a site contains basic elements that establish trust between the consumer and a Web business, I expect that consumers will see the seal and say that this site is OK to do business with," said Pittman, president of media for Brightstreet.com, a startup company that develops on-line promotions.

To earn any of the three (3) seals, Web sties must meet the following basic criteria:

Web sites that want to display the Truste or BBB Online seals are required to fill out applications and pay annual license fees, which range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the company's annual revenue. If the Web sites privacy policy is approved, the site earns the right to post the seal, which is designed to link users directly to a verification page on the seal program's Web site when clicked.

* A seal that does not connect to the program's Web site is an illegitimate copy. About 600 sites now carry the Truste seal and about 450 sites have inquired about applying for the mark of BBB Online.

The CPA Webtrust seal signifies a site that has submitted to a more rigorous review--and has also been willing to shell out a larger sum of maney for the privilege. A company's Web site is eligible for the Webtrust seal only after it has been examined by a CPA who has been trained to audit company systems and scrutinize a company's eletronic processes for gathering data.

The examinations can cost companies a few thousand dollars or even several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the conpany's size. CPA Webtrust has certified 20 sites so far.

Enforcing the principles behind the seals is also part of the package. Officials for Truste and BBB Online say they constantly monitor, review and investigae their certified sites. If they find an infraction, they say they will withdraw their seals from the Web site.

With the CPA Webtrust seals, auditors are required to visit the Web sites company headquarters every three ( 3) months for reviews. If a site is not up to snuff, Webtrust officials say, the seal is removed. So far , none of the companies has pulled a seal off a site.

* The presence of seals, however, indicates privacy not secrecy. No seal guarantees that a Web site will not sell or trade your e-mail address, name or phone number, or records of your purchases and on-line surfing habits. And Web sites with the same seal privacy seal may have widely different privacy policies.

Officials for the seal programs say they are not trying to dictate specific practices; they do not want to start micromanaging how companies use information that they have gathered * legally, with a customer's informed consent.

Privacy advocates counter that companies have very broad notions of what constitutes "Informed Consent" "Are You Informed" simply because a policy is posted "somewhere" on-line?

And it is considered "consent" if you have to "actively" seek a way to stop a company from making information about you available to third parties, or * * should consent mean that you must agree "Ahead of time "* to allow a company to disseminate your personal information?

Company executives say the seals are proof that on-line businesses can regulate themselves without interference from the government. The sponsors of Truste include some of the Net's largest companies, like America On Line, Microsoft and Netscape.

Several of those companies have offered to provide financial support to BBB Online, too. And many of these sponsors have also earned privacy seals from Truste or BBB Online, causing some consumer groups to dismiss the programs as riddled with conflicts of interest

* "The seals are completely meaningless" said Russ Smith, a privacy advocate who has built a watchdog site called " consumer.net ". He said the seal programs were beholden to their sponors and had little incentive to go after companies that violated their own "posted" privacy policies.

*That was disputed by Anne Jennings, a spokeswomen for Truste, who said, "We treat our sponsors with more rigor in the investigative process than we do anybody else"

The dispute got specific a month ago when a watchdog group called Junk-Busters complained to Truste about problems with Microsoft Windows 98. An idenfitying number in the software's operating system was linked to data gathered about Windows 98 users without their knowledge. (Microsoft has since said it will fix the problem.)The Microsoft Web site carries the Truste seal on a page that carries the sites privacy policy.

Truste put out a statement agreeing that the Microsoft practice "compromised consumer trust," but it dismissed the complaint anyway. It said it did not have jurisdiction over Windows98 because the Truste seal covers only Website interactions

That reasoning does not satisfy Ritenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. To him, the privacy seals are less about providing customers with privacy rights and more about protecting companies from charges that they are not being fair to their customers

The privacy seals simply signify disclosure about what the companies might do with the information they collect about Web site visitors, he said, "That's not protection, that's just a disclaimer," he added.

But people who believe in privacy seals say consumers just need to give them a chance. Customers have high expectations for privacy on the internet and want more control over their personal information than they might have off-line, said Pittman, the Truste board member.

Truste and Better Business Bureau have created privacy seals specifically for ldrens Web sites. In addition to meeting the requirements of the regular privacy seals, the sites must not ask children for more information than necessary or coax them into providing data in exchange for gifts or toys.

The cornerstone of the childrens seals is a requirement that the sites must get verifiable parental consent before obtaining information from children under 13.*   Parental consent is a tricky notion on-line. An eager 10-year-old, for instance, could simply check a box that says consent is given.

To close those loopholes, the Better Business Bureau and Truste will give its children seals only to Web sites that get parental permission by Fax, Phone Call or Mail, or that get credit-card numbers from parents on-line to verify that a parent is on the other end.

The Federal Trade Commission proposed regulations recently that would require all commercial Web sites to get parental consent for children under 13. Privacy advocates and developers of childrens Web dites are grappling with the question of what technological tools would be used for that verification.

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