Whenus Advertising Software First To Be Whitelisted By Truste Certification Program

[Alco]

WHENUS ADVERTISING SOFTWARE FIRST TO BE WHITELISTED BY TRUSTE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
WhenU Save products awarded certification as safe and consumer-controlled downloadable software; TRUSTe download guidelines to set industry standard
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NEW YORK February 15, 2007 Behavioral ad targeting company, WhenU.com, today announced that its Save products are the first Certified Advertising Software to be whitelisted by TRUSTes Trusted Download Program. TRUSTe, the leading online privacy certification organization, partnered with AOL, CA, CNET, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo! to establish strict guidelines for downloadable software and a certification program for software applications which meet these guidelines.
The Trusted Download Program offers a whitelist for businesses to direct advertising dollars and partnership opportunities only to safe software requiring informed user consent and control. WhenUs Save applications became TRUSTes first Certified Advertising Software after demonstrating an ongoing commitment to industry best practices.
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here are a few more important links which each of you should link to.
WhenU Press Release - http://www.whenu.com/press_release_02_14_07.html
TRUSTe Press Release - http://www.truste.org/about/press_release/02_15_07.php
MediaPost Coverage - http://publications.mediapost.com/in...27528&p=371635
ClickZ Coverage - http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625004
Forbes Coverage - http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap3428707.html
iMedia Coverage - http://www.imediaconnection.com/news/13714.asp
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TRUSTe is the gold standard and WhenU will continue to maintain the highest downloadable software standards - recognized now by the industry.

[unhappyuser]

Just out of interest i did a small search on TRUSTe and found an interesting viewpoint. Im not going to repeat it fully, but i do want to post one of the arguments here. From what i understand, any company can do anything with information your private information (and still keep the TRUSTe label), as long as they don't do it with their website/webportal. Well that sounds ridiculous, but this is because software falls outside the 'scope' of TRUSTe.
Here is the quote (the full post can be found on the blog of TRUSTe.

For the past ten years TRUSTe has gotten watchdog complaints about member sites that abuse the concept of privacy, and refused to act because of some undefined scope you have limited yourself to.
[...]
You state in this blog Consumers can be confident that TRUSTe certified sites comply with the disclosed privacy policy and offers them informed notice and choice.
Wheres the part about but only if they dont use more than one domain, or software servers, or just plain software, to violate your privacy. If they do that, youre on your own.?

[unhappyuser]

I still dont see my previous post so i cant edit it .
But i also wanted to mention this site i found. It states that TRUSTe has certified a company called iDownload which sells a product called VirusHunter. I never heard about that company but this is what i read about iDownload:

• The company claims the product is certified by ICSA Labs [...] VirusHunter is NOT certified by ICSA Labs nor has it ever been submitted for testing.
• No contact information for the company .
• No details of the companys management or ownership.
• No privacy policy.
• Exaggerated claims of security, including references to a nonexistent virus lab.
• Phony testimonials

A little lower in the article it is stated that iDownload is related to ChoicePoint.

Yes, ChoicePoint, Inc., the same company that is currently under fire for being duped into allowing criminals to access its massive database of personal information

Now if iDownload (or ChoicePoint) is certified by TRUSTe, it might be disputable that "TRUSTe is the gold standard" .


PS I looked on the truste company list and although i could not find iDownload on it, choicepoint.com choicepoint.net are both on it.