TRUSTe Honors HP as the Most Trusted Company in America for Privacy

Award Measured Top 50 Companies Identified in Consumer Study as Doing a Superior Job of Building Trust

San Francisco, CA– January 10, 2005 – TRUSTe, the leading online privacy nonprofit organization and Ponemon Institute, today announced that the Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award will go to HP for the establishment and enforcement of progressive privacy practices. A judging panel, consisting of privacy experts from academia and industry, reviewed and selected HP out of 50 eligible companies for its comprehensive privacy program. The Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award matches consumer experience and perceptions of trust with expert insight into a company’s active privacy initiatives to create a trusted brand.

The 50 companies which topped the list in a consumer-focused study released in June by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe were invited to participate in the award program. In that survey, the public determined eBay, American Express and HP (in order) as the leading companies in trust and privacy protection. The Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award examined internal programs and focused on the effective and innovative privacy policies actually being used and applied in each company’s business. Every one of the top 50 showed leadership in multiple aspects of privacy. Ranked among the top ten by the panel of judges were AOL, Charles Schwab, eBay, GE, Intuit, MSN, Nationwide, Verizon Communications, WebMD Health and Wachovia.

“HP ranked high in consumer’s overall perceptions and was able to support its leading position with an aggressive and thorough privacy campaign,” said Fran Maier, president and executive director of TRUSTe. “HP has been active in making privacy a priority in how it interacts with customers and conducts business at large. We applaud their efforts and the importance they place on privacy throughout their organization.”

“We are honored to be recognized as America’s Most Trusted Company for Privacy,” said Barbara Lawler, chief privacy officer at HP. “Protecting our customers’ and employees’ privacy is fundamental to our global citizenship objectives and is vital in developing and maintaining trusted relationships with customers, employees and partners.”

“HP has distinguished its trustworthiness among consumers, and our panel of experts confirmed that HP’s privacy program deserves that customer trust and loyalty,” said Larry Ponemon, Chairman of Ponemon Institute. “In the end what makes a successful world class company is customer trust, and this award is designed to recognize those organizations who make consumer privacy rights part of their core values.”

The judging committee tasked with evaluating in-house company privacy programs included: Mary Culnan, professor at Bentley College; James Koenig, privacy practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers; Fran Maier, president and executive director for TRUSTe; Dr. Larry Ponemon, founder and chairman for Ponemon Institute and Eric Sinrod, legal columnist for USATODAY.com.

About TRUSTe
TRUSTe is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information in the evolving networked world.

Founded in 1997, TRUSTe runs an award-winning global privacy certification and seal program. Its seal programs are considered Safe Harbors for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU Safe Harbor Framework. Today, TRUSTe maintains the largest privacy seal program with more than 1,400 Web sites certified throughout the world including AOL, Microsoft, IBM, Nationwide and The New York Times. TRUSTe's mission extends standards, certification and oversight into email with Bonded Sender and wireless with the Wireless Advisory Committee. For more information on TRUSTe please visit www.truste.org.

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ABOUT PONEMON INSTITUTE
Ponemon Institute is a “think tank” dedicated to advancing responsible information management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, Ponemon Institute conducts independent research to promote best practices, to educate leaders from the private and public sectors and to verify the privacy and data protection practices of organizations. The Institute is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. For more information, visit www.ponemon.org or contact (520) 290-3400.

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