Shopping.com Trusted Stores Just Got More Trustworthy

Shopping.com and TRUSTe Team Up to Further Protect Online Shoppers

TRUSTe Privacy Certification Ensures New Layer of Trust for Shopping.com Shoppers

Brisbane, CA– October 11, 2005 – Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season, Shopping.com is teaming up with TRUSTe to ensure that its merchants safeguard shoppers’ personal data. To help assuage consumer’s fears and give shoppers an added measure of confidence when making a purchase, Shopping.com will begin to require merchants to have their privacy policies independently certified in order to maintain their listing as a “Trusted Store” on Shopping.com. These additional stringent requirements add an even more significant level of privacy protection to Shopping.com’s Trusted Store program.

The Shopping.com Trusted Store status is awarded to merchants who receive consistent positive customer ratings and reviews, provide accurate information and honor the prices listed on their site. The TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal will certify that merchants comply with the highest standards for safeguarding shoppers’ personal information and enforce respectful treatment of customers for as long as merchants display the seal. The seal marks companies that adhere to TRUSTe's strict privacy principles, and abide by the TRUSTe Watchdog dispute resolution process.

“At Shopping.com, consumer protection has always been, and will remain, of the utmost importance,” said Iggy Fanlo, Shopping.com’s President of Worldwide Field Operations. "Shopping.com and TRUSTe’s agreement marks our latest initiative to serve both consumers and merchants by fostering a safe and secure environment in which they can conduct business. We will continue to encourage all of our thousands of merchants to take the steps necessary to earn Trusted Store status, which will now hold even greater merit.”

“As the first comparison shopping site to require TRUSTe certification of their trusted merchants, Shopping.com is taking the lead in truly creating a safer shopping experience,” said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “TRUSTe believes that a combination of user experience ratings and our exhaustive look into online data collection and use practices provides the idea combination of shopper-to-shopper advice and expert third party oversight.”

About TRUSTe
TRUSTe, the online privacy leader, 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 the “We Don’t Spam” E-mail Privacy Seal. For more information on TRUSTe please visit www.truste.org.  

About Shopping.com
Shopping.com, an eBay company, pioneered online comparison shopping and today is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet. With millions of products, thousands of merchants and millions of reviews from the Epinions community, Shopping.com empowers consumers to make informed choices and, as a result, drives much higher conversion to sale and value for merchants.

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