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TRUSTe WHITEPAPER
Signs of the Times: Getting the Most Benefit
from Trust Endorsement Marks and Seals
55 2nd Street, 2nd FloorSan Francisco, CA 94105415 520 3491 tel415 520 3420 faxprivacyseals@truste.comwww.truste.com
©2010 TRUSTe. All rights reserved.Do people trust your brand? Increasingly, your company's image is pixels on a screen, and 58% of your visitors to your website want to feel that they can trust the people and processes behind the online customers screen before they do business with you. Whether it's getting prospective leads to sign up for an eSeminar or turning clicks into purchases, organizations are coming to understand the value of don't trust you. trust as a key component of both their brand and their bottom line. - Marketing Sherpa One of the most effective ways to build consumer trust and confidence is by displaying trust research seals on your website. Several companies offer well-known marks that certify everything from a proven track record of customer satisfaction to the use of secure methods for transactions. Other seals indicate a site does not carry dangerous malware that can infect a visitor's computer or steal private data from the company's web servers or back-end systems. And in an era when people carefully safeguard their digital identities from theft or abuse, seals that certify a commitment to sound privacy practices are more important than ever.
The types of seals you need on our website will vary depending on the nature of your business. For example, if you are primarily engaged in ecommerce-or if you need to collect sensitive information-the first seal you will need is one providing visible proof that all information transmitted through online forms is secured with an SSL digital certificate. From there, you can begin to build a sound Business Integrity Strategy that can differentiate your company, increase conversions, and grow revenues.
This white paper will compare the various seals available, the benefits they provide, and which are complementary and which overlap. It will also discuss ways TRUSTe can offer a comprehensive approach to trust.
Endorsement Seals, Widgets, Stars, and More
A trust seal is a small image that you can place on your website to demonstrate compliance with criteria for security, privacy or other aspects of trust. Some seals certify that a company follows good business practices online while others signify such customer satisfaction metrics as a track record for reliably delivering goods. There are even widgets that provide privacy disclosures regarding online advertising practices like tracking consumers' activity on the Web.
These online endorsements fall into three basic categories: security, trust, and privacy. User-generated merchant reputation engines, which have exploded in popularity in recent years, provide another form of endorsement.
Security and Vulnerability EndorsementsSecurity seals from companies such as Verisign, Comodo, and GeoTrust validate that a company has Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection for transmission of sensitive data via Web forms. Look for the padlock icon in the bottom of the browser window and the "https://" in the address bar. These symbols mean that criminals cannot intercept your data while you are submitting it to a website.
2 ©2010. TRUSTe. All rights reserved.VeriSign » Learn more about Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enables secure e-commerce, communications and interactions for EU Safe Harbor websites, intranets, and extranets. It protects consumers in two ways. First, an SSL certificate Certification from enables encryption of sensitive information during online transactions. Secondly, it works like a TRUSTe. passport, enabling the browser to verify that a business and its site are who they say they are.
VeriSign (which also owns GEOTrust and Thawte) is the leading (SSL) Certificate Authority. During the handshake between the consumer's browser and a company's server, VeriSign verifies the ownership of the domain name existence of the business, and its authority to apply for the certificate. This assured encryption and high level of authentication explains why 91% of U.S. online shoppers are familiar with the VeriSign Secured seal. Note: In May 2010, Symantec signed an agreement to acquire the authentication division of VeriSign, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate services.
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