TRUSTe and ePrivacy Group Introduce Privacy Education Courses for Businesses

First-Ever Online Training Modules Now Available for Companies to Educate Staff on Privacy Policies and Compliance

CHICAGO, IL – October 16, 2002 – TRUSTe, the nonprofit organization widely known for its leading privacy certification and seal program, and ePrivacy Group, a respected privacy consulting, training and technology company, announced a new privacy education program today.  Now businesses can use a turnkey solution to educate everyone from executives to call center employees on how to protect customers' personal privacy.

Announced today at the Privacy & Security Academy & Expo in Chicago, the annual conference of the International Association of Privacy Officers, the joint education initiative was designed to enable privacy officers to fulfill needs in compliance and corporate-wide education.  The training offers a curriculum, developed by the privacy education experts at ePrivacy Group and honed with input from TRUSTe gained from their experience with 1500 member companies.  The training modules are delivered online, to minimize both costs and workplace disruptions, and can be customized to meet a company's specific needs.

Fran Maier, executive director of TRUSTe, said, "The number one privacy challenge companies face today is staff education.  Once they've developed a comprehensive policy, the privacy manager must bring employees up to speed to prevent damaging privacy-related incidents.  Privacy education has emerged as a Œmust have'." Added Maier, "We are pleased to offer this comprehensive program of privacy education to help companies best live up to the privacy promises that they make to their customers."

"Privacy training increasingly is becoming a key ingredient – a required ingredient in many industries – in managing and overseeing privacy and data protection within an organization," said Vincent Schiavone, CEO of ePrivacy Group. "This is true whether employee privacy awareness training is undertaken as an increasingly common best practice, prompted in part by recent Federal Trade Commission action, or as a legal requirement."

The training modules range from one-day workshops for executives to one-hour training sessions for employees on the front lines. The courses are designed to deliver practical privacy insight, including the following:

• An overview of fair information practice principles
• A view of the regulatory and legal landscape
• A discussion of who in the organization is responsible for privacy and how to support them, and
• Solutions for the technical, business and political aspects of privacy and data protection.

Upon completion, companies will receive complete documentation of employee participation, demonstrating due diligence in matters of privacy protection.  TRUSTe member companies will obtain a TRUSTe certificate of completion as well.  Additional information about the curriculum and terms for the new education program are available at www.eprivacygroup.com/truste. This education initiative builds on the existing relationship between TRUSTe and ePrivacy Group.  The two organizations joined together earlier this year, combining TRUSTe's third-party oversight experience with ePrivacy Group's privacy training and technology know-how, to launch the Trusted Sender program.  Now in beta stage, the Trusted Sender program brings trust and confidence to commercial email by means of a unique trust stamp enabled by ePrivacy Group's Postiva technology.

About ePrivacy Group
ePrivacy Group is a trust technology and services company focused on privacy and security solutions for global 2000 companies, government agencies and professional trade associations.  The company's patent-pending Postiva technology powers the TRUSTe Trusted Sender program - an industry self-regulation effort to protect email from spam.  Trusted Sender offers consumers, ISPs, spam filter and email client companies, an easy way to verify the authenticity and integrity of email. ePrivacy Services include: Privacy Officer and employee privacy training; consulting on privacy strategy, implementation and oversight; and,  regulatory compliance and privacy incident management, including legal actions. Founded by leading experts in electronic privacy and security, ePrivacy Group is a privately held company based in Philadelphia, with offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Europe.

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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Wiley Rein LLP