Nearly 25 % More CONSUMERS INTEND TO FILE THEIR TAXES ONLINE IN 2005

BizRate-TRUSTe Survey Reveals That Majority of Consumers Seek Out Privacy Statements Before Filing Online

San Francisco – April 29, 2004 – Tax season has come and gone but next year's is already shaping up to be a bigger online filing season than it was for tax year 2003, according to a joint survey by leading shopping search site BizRate.com and privacy seal program TRUSTe.  While 30% of 2003 filers did so online by April 15, 2004, the survey shows that 55% of filers plan to file online in early 2005 for the 2004 tax year.

The key driver to increased online filings is the consumer belief that online privacy and security will improve over the next 12 months.

In fact, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of consumers check for a privacy statement before filing their taxes online.  Similarly, when asked to rank trust factors when selecting an online tax vendor, 62 percent rated Web site privacy statements the highest level of importance (on a scale of 1 to 5).

The need for privacy assurance reflects general concerns expressed by consumers considering whether or not to file online.  For example, 18 percent of those respondents that did not intend to file online this year said they are still concerned about sending financial information online and another 15 percent remain fearful of identity theft.

"The government has been aggressive in encouraging citizens to file online, and clearly privacy and security remain key elements in the slow transition," said Fran Maier, president and executive director of TRUSTe.  "What we hope to show through this survey is that consumers are taking privacy statements extremely seriously when asked to share sensitive financial data."

Confidence in privacy is an important issue for all types of commerce online as 43% of respondents who file online also shop online several times a month. 

"A full 92% of respondents say they get a refund faster when filing online," said Chuck Davis, President and CEO of BizRate.com.  "We also expect that part of that refund finds itself back online in the form of online shopping expenditures, a trend which benefits BizRate.com and many of its 42,000 merchant partners."

Note to editor:
The survey data was collected from over 2,600 online buyers between April 7-15, 2004.  Complete results of the 2004 Tax Survey are available upon request.

About BizRate.com
Founded in 1996, BizRate.com is the largest, fastest, and most accurate shopping search engines on the Web. With an index of over 30 million product offers from more than 40,000 stores, BizRate.com uses ShopRank™, a proprietary shopping search algorithm, to produce the industry's most relevant search results by weighing price, popularity, and availability of products against the reputations of merchants that sell them. At the heart of ShopRank™ are BizRate.com's signature merchant and product ratings, collected from more than one million online buyers each month, making them the most reliable ratings on the Web. Every week, the BizRate.com shopping search engine prepares millions of shoppers to make smarter, more confident purchases and sends them directly to the checkout page of thousands of online merchants.

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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