The 1998 report issued by the Federal Trade Commission of the United States pointed out that only 14% of the websites surveyed disclosed their data privacy and security policies. For consumers who are unwilling to have such problems Website construction In case of transactions, various organizations are providing enterprises with signs or badges that can be placed on their websites to help consumers gain confidence. In order to have these logos, companies or websites must demonstrate their ability to maintain certain capabilities, policies or control systems. In this section, we will discuss and compare five such logo choices: Better Business Bureau (BBB), TRUSTe, Veri Sign Co., Ltd., International Computer Security Association (ICSA), and WebTnist supported by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). These signs are shown in Figure 2-8.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private non-profit organization established since 1912, which has been committed to improving business ethics and conscious self-discipline. BBB also provides a mechanism to track consumers' complaints against its member organizations (there are more than 230000 member organizations of BBB), and helps resolve consumer disputes. With many enterprises turning part of their business activities to the Internet and the emergence of new Internet commerce in the market, BBB's services will naturally and logically extend to promoting business ethics practices on the Internet. BBB's initial reaction was to launch its BBB online tag. This mark is managed by BBB Online, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBB. Membership fees are required for local BBB membership. In addition, there is a license fee to participate in the BBB Online Program. Costs vary according to the number of employees in the company. By the middle of 1998, more than 1500 websites had the BBB online logo.
What guarantee does the logo provide for consumers? Referring to Figure 2-7, we can see that the BBB online plan has slightly touched on the business policy, which has "guaranteed" the advertising ethics of enterprises and responded to consumer complaints. However, this does not mean that the website with online logo will disclose its business policy, nor does it mean that the business policy of the enterprise has been inspected by BBB. In terms of transaction integrity, BBB online logo does not directly check the integrity control system supporting electronic transaction processing, but it does track consumer complaints and reserves the right to revoke the logo if too many complaints are received and/or complaints are not resolved satisfactorily. Many enterprises, especially larger ones, dare not participate in the BBB plan because of the requirements of binding arbitration of consumption disputes.
Data confidentiality and security practices are not listed in the BBB online marking plan. However, BBB is creating a new plan (called BBB Online Privacy Plan), specifically targeting consumer privacy issues. The details of the plan are still under design, but its purpose is to provide a mechanism for enterprises to show that they comply with the online privacy principles determined by BBB Online.
