Microsoft Agrees to TRUSTe's Strong Recommendation That It Invite A Third Party Firm to Review the Hotmail Incident

September 9, 1999, Cupertino, CA – Microsoft has agreed to TRUSTe's strong recommendation to engage a third-party firm to provide validation that the recent Hotmail security issue has been resolved as reported by Microsoft on August 30, 1999. Microsoft and TRUSTe are moving forward to address a handful of anonymous complaints posted on the TRUSTe Watchdog Web page, an easy-to-use consumer recourse and resolution mechanism.

Referencing Microsoft's agreement to invite a third-party review, Bob Lewin, TRUSTe's executive director, emphasized that TRUSTe will take the steps necessary to ensure that its licensees live up to their privacy policies.

"The Watchdog is the single-most critical part of TRUSTe's consumer resolution program and, as such, we take these complaints seriously," said Lewin. "The bottom line is that there is no trust without privacy and, likewise, there is no privacy without reasonable security of the data being collected." Lewin added that he is pleased that Microsoft has agreed to bring in an outside third-party to review the Hotmail incident.

"Last week, we worked closely with TRUSTe informing them of our process for identifying and resolving the situation, and they agreed that we managed the situation appropriately," said Richard Purcell, Director of Data Policies and Practices, Microsoft. "This quick and appropriate response, along with Microsoft's voluntary engagement of a third-party review is further evidence of Microsoft's commitment to privacy protection."

At this point, it is anticipated that the review will be conducted quickly. As Hotmail is a TRUSTe licensee, Microsoft will keep TRUSTe apprised of the results of the pending review.

 

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