Truste Seal Programs for Online

TRUSTe Seal Programs for Online Business Websites

TRUSTe's Seal Programs include, among others, the Web Privacy Seal, Children's Privacy Seal, Email Services, and International Services. Each service provides security and privacy for individuals and organizations that usually conduct transactions and activities through the Internet. The Web Privacy Seal program is provided for online business organizations and companies to ensure the consumers that the information they disclose to these organizations' web sites will be strictly confidential and secure. The Children's Privacy Seal, meanwhile, offers ongoing site monitoring of web sites that children access when going online. Children are given the choice to trust a web site or not by verifying whether the site is a member of TRUSTe's programs or not. Similarly, the Email and International Services work for individual consumers and business organizations alike by allowing each Internet user to gain access to almost all web sites in the Internet that are considered secure and legitimate by TRUSTe. These programs, in a nutshell, offer more advantages than disadvantages to the user. Its programs only require a user to submit a disclosure statement, as well as other information that are but basic requirements needed if one should want to legitimize a web site in the Internet. Apart from the added security and legitimacy, TRUSTe links web sites and users to each other, which brings into reality the main thrust of the Internet, which is to connect people from all over the world. Unless the organization or user has reasons not to consider their web sites as secure and legitimate, TRUSTe's programs do not present any disadvantage to Internet users.

Studying each Seal Program offered by TRUSTe, almost all problems encountered both by businesses and consumers in the Internet are given proper consideration and appropriate action. The General Web Privacy program is one such example, which covers almost every aspect of web security and privacy that an Internet user needs. It does not only ensure the user the security and legitimacy of a web site, it also secures and keeps private and confidential any information that the user may disclose through the site (e.g., credit card or personal information). Of course, in the case of business organizations and companies, they may have specific needs to satisfy and require in order to secure their sites, particularly the information within these web sites. Thus, additional features may be specified by an organization; but for the Internet user or the individual, TRUSTe's programs are sufficient already to make them feel secure and safe while conducting transactions online.

TRUSTe's assertion that consumer education is the number one priority of privacy protection is indeed true in the case of Internet technology. Since every Internet is a user, hence, also a consumer, each has the right to know the kind of web site they are providing information to, in the same way that the web site secures itself from users that are not legitimate and secure enough for organizations and companies to conduct business transactions with. It is through consumer education that every user learns to assume responsibility and become aware of the possible dangers of going online, in the same way that Internet opens doors of opportunities for users.