Web privacy certifier growing as for-profit - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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Founded in 1997 as a nonprofif to promoteindustry self-regulation, San Francisco-based TRUSTre became a for-profit last year, took on $10.54 million in venture capital, nearly doubled its staffv and recently bought a company with anti-malware TRUSTe officials said the decision to go for-profif came because it was having trouble keepinf up with technological changes, with threates morphing from spam to spyware and adwarer and now to behavioral marketing, whichj targets users with ads based on web surfinvg activity.
“As a nonprofit, we were constrained” by too little access to working capital, said CEO Fran Maier, who joined TRUSTee in 2001 after co-founding the dating site TRUSTe went from 28 employees last summer to a currengt headcountof 53, and Maier expects to hire several more people beforee the year is out. The compangy has an open position listed now for an engineering Revenuewas $4.2 million in 2006, $5.5 million in $6 million in 2008 and is on trackk to hit about $10 million this according to company officials. TRUSTw is focusing its expansion on small businessese by offering boilerplate privacy certificatiob startingat $249, plus $49 a month.
In the company bought Haute Secure for web site scanningfand anti-malware technology TRUSTe will offer small and largre businesses. TRUSTe has the most widely adoptedInternety trust-seal logo, appearing on 3,440 web sites, includint 26 of the top 50 web Started when web sites typicallg did not have privacy TRUSTe offers various programs, the most popular being its privacu trustmark certification, which monitors privacy practices on web It makes money by charging for certificationes it says indicate holders adhere to “strict privacyt principles.” How strict is a matter of debate.
Approvak does not mean that a company will not collect personal information about consumers and transfer it toothed entities. Certification is only intended to guarantee that companies meet minimum standardsfor security, have acceptablse privacy policy statements, give people the choicew of whether to opt in or out and abided by their stated policies. TRUSTe also certifies “trustee downloads” that may bundle tracking and advertising software with free games andthe like. But tactics like keystrok logging and taking overof users’ computersa are banned.