In our Apr. 27, 1999, story, "Should You Pay for a Privacy Seal of Approval?", Business Week Frontier Online looked at the value of certificates given by third parties intended to reassure online consumers that Web sites won't sell their personal data without their knowledge or otherwise abuse it. Here are two responses from readers:

To the Editor:

I appreciated your clear and well-written article about the use of privacy seals on Web sites. They do have value, but may be oversold to the public. For example, Truste runs print ads in magazines like Brill's Content suggesting that the Truste seal on a site makes it harder for a hacker to get your credit-card number for his/her criminal purposes. However, Truste is not a security system. If a site is poorly protected against hackers, then the Truste seal is irrelevant.

Another problem: Consumers may assume that all sites showing a seal have the same privacy provisions, and that is not necessarily the case. Also, I wonder how long it will be before Web sites run by criminals display bogus privacy seals, giving consumers a false sense of security when they provide information to their sites.

Again, I really enjoyed your article.

Dave Graf
Chicago
davidg3276@zdnetmail.com

[Editor's note: For readers not familiar with the Truste ads to which Mr. Graf refers, here's a description of one that appeared in Brill's Content: A young man -- clad in jeans, lounging in a huge easy chair -- smiles laconically up at the camera. The caption reads: "Harold couldn't really afford to furnish his new apartment exactly the way he wanted. So he used your credit-card number. Until now, when you gave out personal information on the Web you had no idea where it could end up. The TRUSTe symbol gives you the power to find out." The ad doesn't say that Harold is a hacker, nor does the picture show how Harold got "your" credit-card number.]

To the Editor:

I am the owner-operator of http://www.faircontest.com/.

We spent hundreds of hours developing our privacy and data statements as well as our disclaimer and legal forms. Why should we be bullied into forking over what could be thousands of dollars to an organization that states that its only objective is to give a sense of surety to consumers that we won't abuse their data?

For all the details of my opinion on Truste, you can see the privacy statement for the above site, where I have a link.

J.M. Ivler
ivler@i-xpress.com
(FairContest LLC is an operator of contests for Web sites.)

Note: Letters are edited for style, clarity, and length.