TRUSTe BOARD MEMBERS NAMED TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PRIVACY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Industry Leaders will Advise Secretary of Homeland Security and its Chief Privacy Officer on Privacy Policies and Operations

San Francisco, CA– February 24, 2005 – TRUSTe, the leading online privacy non-profit organization, today announced that its chairman and two members of its board have been selected to sit on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. This committee has been established to advise the DHS Secretary and the agency’s Chief Privacy Officer on programmatic, policy, and technological issues that affect privacy.

“TRUSTe strongly supports the Department of Homeland Security’s creation of an advisory committee on data privacy and integrity,” said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “Since the early days of the Internet, TRUSTe has worked with organizations and individuals to establish a framework of trust for online commerce. We are pleased DHS selected three of our board members to join this influential group, further demonstrating TRUSTe’s leadership.”

Richard Purcell was appointed TRUSTe Chairman of the Board in January. He is the CEO of Corporate Privacy Group, an independent privacy-consulting group, which focuses on privacy education. Previously, Purcell was the Chief Privacy Officer for Microsoft Corporation. Joseph Alhadeff, vice president for global public policy and chief privacy officer of Oracle Corporation, has served on the TRUSTe board since January 2004. David Hoffman, group counsel and director of privacy at the Intel Corporation, has experience in privacy issues with business compliance and product development.  Mr. Hoffman has served on the TRUSTe Board of Directors for three years.

Members of the Advisory Committee have diverse expertise in privacy, security and emerging technology, and come from large and small companies, the academic community, and the non-profit sector. The members also reflect a geographic diversity as well as a seasoned depth of knowledge on issues of data protection, openness, technology, and national security. Members for the first term will serve for two years, three years, or four years and all subsequent members will serve for a period of four years. The first Privacy Advisory Committee meeting will be held on April 6, 2005 in Washington, DC.

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.

###

 

Wiley Rein LLP