Trust seal

A trust seal is a seal awarded by proprietary companies to business web sites to display in an attempt to boost consumer confidence. There are several well-known trust seals from different companies, and the requirements for the displaying merchant vary, but typically involve a dedication to good security practices or the use of secure methods for transactions, such as Secure Socket Layer. Internet trust seals can come in a variety of forms, including security seals, business seals and privacy seals and are available from a variety of companies, usually for a fee.

A seal can be either passive or active. Most SSL seals and many other well-known seals are only validated when they are created or renewed. Active seals show a recent scan date that reflects whether the site still meets the requirements. This acts as an early warning system of potential security or hacker related issues. Active seals can further increase confidence but can still fall short of protecting consumers between the time a site is comprimised and the time the comprimise is detected.

Third party verification from a reliable source and a strategically placed trust seal can provide peace of mind for consumers as well as an increase in conversion rate and sales on websites [cite paper
title = Myth or Reality: Effect of Trust-Promoting Seals in Electronic Markets
author = Hu, Xiaorui
coauthors = Lin, Zhangxi; Zhang, Han
url = http://zlin.ba.ttu.edu/papers/published/WITS01-trust.pdf
format = PDF
accessdate = 2008-06-16
date = 2001-12-21] . Some trust seals, such as McAfee Hacker Safe, however, have been criticized as not doing enough to protect the security of visitors to a site [cite web
author = Dan Goodin
url = http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/29/mcafee_hacker_safe_sites_vulnerable/
title = McAfee 'Hacker Safe' cert sheds more cred
publisher = The Register
date = 2008-04-29
accessdate = 2008-06-13] .

Companies providing trust seals

There are several companies that provide trust seals in their various forms, including , TRUSTe, [http://www.trust-guard.com Trust-Guard] , [http://www.trusted-site.org Trusted-Site.org] , The Better Business Bureau, Hacker Safe, [http://www.webentrust.com Web Entrust] , [http://www.merchant-safe.com Merchant-Safe] and Control Scan.

References