Submitted via email

TRUSTe, the Internet industry’s privacy seal program, appreciates the opportunity to submit the following response to the Federal Trade Commission’s request for comment on issues that may inform the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission’s study of online profiling. These comments address the role that seal programs effectively may play in facilitating the implementation of fair information practices to online profiling activities. In so doing, it may be possible to look to self regulation to protect consumer privacy as it relates to online profiling.

About TRUSTe

TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit privacy initiative dedicated to building users’ trust an confidence on the Internet and accelerating growth of the Internet industry. TRUSTe has developed a third-party oversight "seal" program that alleviates users’ concerns about online privacy, while meeting the specific business needs of each of our licensed Web sites.

The TRUSTe program is backed by a multi-faceted assurance process that establishes Web site credibility, thereby making users more comfortable when making online purchases or providing personal information. TRUSTe’s goal is to provide online consumers with control over their personal information; Web publishers with a standardized, cost-effective solution for both satisfying the business model of their site and addressing consumers’ anxiety over sharing personal information online; and government regulators with demonstrable evidence that the industry can successfully self-regulate.

TRUSTe understands that privacy disclosure is subjective and no single privacy policy will work for everyone. The TRUSTe program enables companies to develop privacy statements that reflect the information gathering and dissemination practices of its site.

The cornerstone of the program is the TRUSTe "trustmark," an online branded seal that takes users directly to a company’s privacy statement. The trustmark is awarded only to sites that adhere to TRUSTe program requirements, which embody principles of fair information practices, and agree to comply with ongoing TRUSTe oversight and resolution process.

Online Profiling and Seal Programs

Online profiling, the practice of aggregating information about consumer preferences and interests by tracking their movements online presents complex, though not insurmountable challenges to privacy self regulation. While this use of information gathered online may well re-invent the marketing process, it raises challenges to consumer privacy on the net. As the data aggregated becomes personally identifiable (rather than merely aggregated demographic data), consumer fears about what happens to that information while they travel the Web are inevitably heightened. This can have chilling effects on the use of new technologies and the development of commerce on the Web.

The practice of online profiling reflects the rapidly expanding and evolving relationships between companies providing goods and services on the Web. TRUSTe, uniquely positioned in Silicon Valley, has developed the knowledge and experience necessary to track and understand these developments, and to understand how fair information practices can be applied in this changing environment. Over the last several months, TRUSTe has watched closely as companies formed new and often complex relationships and alliances in their efforts to provide goods and services online, and in so doing, create information flows about their customers. As TRUSTe has worked with these companies to provide meaningful privacy seals, it has required that they provide clear and conspicuous notice to consumers about the nature of those relationships and their practices of collecting and sharing data.

From a policy standpoint, what may be truly unique to the issue of online profiling is that the practice is currently silent and, purposely or otherwise, inconspicuous to consumers. The relationships between online advertisers, their clients, and their client’s customers, as well as the ensuing collection and sharing of information to create profiles, may be not only unknown but in fact invisible to the consumer as he or she travels the Web.

Online profiling may be amenable to the application of principles of fair information practices in a self regulatory environment, but only if sufficient clear notice and meaningful choice are available to the consumer. Specific issues related to who is responsible for providing notice, what constitutes sufficient notice and how it should be effectively provided, as well as the requirements for meaningful choice remain to be resolved. As a result of its exclusive focus on privacy issues, its location in Silicon Valley, and its work with companies as they form creative relationships for doing business online, TRUSTe is uniquely situated to provide experienced leadership in resolving these issues to apply self governance to the practice of online profiling.

TRUSTe respectfully requests the opportunity to participate as a session panelist at the public workshop on online profiling, scheduled for November 8, 1999. TRUSTe would specifically be a meaningful contributor to Session III – The Role of Self Regulation. As developer and implementor of the TRUSTe privacy seal program, TRUSTe’s participation would provide input about the practical aspects of online profiling. Over the last several months, TRUSTe has been repeatedly confronted with questions about how to implement fair information practices in a Web environment in which companies are constantly entering into new, developing and increasingly complex relationships with other online businesses in an effort to provide goods and services online. TRUSTe is well qualified to discuss the challenges of providing meaningful notice and choice to consumers in this kind of environment, and would therefore make a valuable contribution to Session III.

TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit privacy initiative dedicated to building users’ trust an confidence on the Internet and accelerating growth of the Internet industry. TRUSTe has developed a third-party oversight "seal" program that alleviates users’ concerns about online privacy, while meeting the specific business needs of each of our licensed Web sites.

The TRUSTe program is backed by a multi-faceted assurance process that establishes Web site credibility, thereby making users more comfortable when making online purchases or providing personal information. TRUSTe’s goal is to provide online consumers with control over their personal information; Web publishers with a standardized, cost-effective solution for both satisfying the business model of their site and addressing consumers’ anxiety over sharing personal information online; and government regulators with demonstrable evidence that the industry can successfully self-regulate.

The cornerstone of the program is the TRUSTe "trustmark," an online branded seal that takes users directly to a company’s privacy statement. The trustmark is awarded only to sites that adhere to TRUSTe program requirements, which embody principles of fair information practices, and agree to comply with ongoing TRUSTe oversight and resolution process.

TRUSTe is the first and the leading online privacy seal program. Its location in Silicon Valley places TRUSTe at the center of the development of new technologies and online businesses. Its exclusive focus on privacy allows TRUSTe to monitor closely emerging online practices and business relationships and their impact on the application of fair information practices online. It is, therefore, especially qualified to discuss how providing clear and meaningful notice and choice to consumers about business relationships and online data collection practices plays a critical role in making a self regulatory approach to protecting consumer’s privacy with respect to online profiling possible.

TRUSTe’s participation would inform the workshop discussion by describing the kinds of relationships and data collection tools it encounters as potential licensees apply for privacy seals. TRUSTe can also offer information about the kind of full disclosure it requires of these licensees, and its rigorous requirements for notice – not only in its privacy statement, but as a consumer travels through a particular Web site. Understanding of these issues is critical to analysis of the relationships and information flows involved in online profiling.