TRUSTe REVOKES SEAL FROM FREEIPODS

Substantial Effort to Comply Falls Short

San Francisco, CA– February 9, 2005 – TRUSTe, the leading online privacy non-profit organization, today announced it has revoked its privacy seal from Gratis Internet, parent company of FreeiPods.com, FreeDesktopPC.com, FreeHandBags.com, and FreeFlatScreens.com. As of January 14, 2005, TRUSTe’s license agreement with Gratis Internet has been terminated due to violations of the privacy seal program requirements. Gratis was found to be in violation of the following sections for the TRUSTe license agreement and/or program requirements:

1. Schedule A, Section III.E. - Acceptance of Recommended Changes.
2. Section II.C. - Children's Privacy Program Requirements.
3. Schedule A, Section III.D.2.g. - Material Changes.
4. Schedule A, Section III.G.6 - Cooperation with TRUSTe
5. Schedule A, Section III, G.1 - Cooperation with TRUSTe.

Details of violations are subject to confidentiality and TRUSTe considers terminating a seal holder a last resort to resolving privacy issues surfaced during the course of monitoring or investigations. TRUSTe’s mission is to influence Website operators to meet best practices in the industry for the collection and use of consumer information. In this case, Gratis did substantially meet requests for changes to web disclosures and practices, however did not complete the entire process.

“We are pleased that consumers turned to TRUSTe for resolution of privacy issues with the FreeiPods.com website,” said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “Unfortunately, Gratis chose not to satisfy all our required cures. Despite our termination, we encourage Gratis to implement all our suggested requirements for compliance as they will benefit all customers of FreeiPods and the company’s related sites.”

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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Ponemon Institute