BBBOnLine, a
subsidiary of the Council of
Better Business Bureaus Inc., said that two dozen major companies are now
spearheading the creation of a privacy seal program to inspire confidence in
Web consumers.
AMR Corp. (American Airlines and Travelocity), Eastman Kodak, Microsoft and
US WEST are the most recent companies to provide leadership and funding for
BBBOnLine’s development of a privacy trustmark.
“With the support of these corporate leaders, we are well on our way to
developing a privacy seal that consumers can look for and trust online,” said
Russell Bodoff, vice president and general manager of BBBOnLine. “We are
confident that together we will create a program that satisfies consumers and
sets a standard for ethical e-commerce in the next century.”
TrustE has something of a head-
start in the trustmark trade, but duplication of effort seems to be a hallmark
of the Web.
Other companies supporting the BBB initiative are America Online, American
Express, AT&T, Dell Computer, Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, Experian, Ford,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, J.C. Penney, MCI Communications, NationsBank, New
York Times Electronic Media, Norwest, Procter & Gamble, Reed Elsevier (parent
company of LEXIS-NEXIS), Sony Electronics and Viacom.
BBBOnLine said its program will be the first privacy seal program to meet
fully the guidelines for self-regulation, recommended by the Online Privacy
Alliance and requested by the Administration. The seal will “guarantee” that
businesses
safeguard personal information collected and provide notices to people
about how information is used.
The development of BBBOnLine’s privacy seal program is nearly complete
and will be operational early next year. BBBOnLine already operates a
reliability seal program that began in April 1997 and currently has nearly
2,000 companies displaying the seal. Web shoppers can check out companies they
do business with in cyberspace by clicking on the BBBOnLine icon to learn
about a company’s history and obtain contact
information.
