Brussels, 15 July 2013: – TRUSTe, BPA Worldwide and ePrivacyconsult have been approved as certification providers for a brand new Trust Seal of approval to demonstrate compliance with the EU Self-Regulatory Programme on Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA), the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA), responsible for enacting key aspects of the self-regulatory initiative on OBA across Europe, announced today.
What is the EDAA Trust Seal?
The EDAA Trust Seal (pictured below) is an important part of the self-regulatory initiative. Designed to help achieve the all-important transparency objective, it will be an easily recognisable symbol for both consumers and business partners, which demonstrates the good standing and responsibility of companies which receive it. The Trust Seal enables companies to demonstrate that they meet standards set out in the European Principles on OBA.
How does the Trust Seal work?
The EDAA-approved certification providers, TRUSTe, BPA Worldwide and ePrivacyconsult, will be responsible for independently assessing whether companies are meeting the requirements of the European self-regulatory Principles on OBA (https://edaa.eu/european-principles) and if so, issue a Trust Seal to compliant companies. The announcement marks a great step forward in the roll out of the Programme, which aims to increase consumer trust, transparency and control of OBA across Europe.
Who will monitor compliance of the Trust Seal?
A crucial feature in ensuring compliance and trust in the self-regulatory programme is that the certification providers will continue to monitor the compliance of companies even after they have been awarded with the seal. This aspect of ongoing monitoring will provide detailed company compliance information for national self-regulatory organisations (SROs) across Europe, in order to facilitate their handling of consumer complaints on OBA in a consistent and efficient manner.
Oliver Gray, Director-General of the EDAA, commented: “EDAA has approved a choice of credible, independent providers with proven expertise in offering certification services to the EU online advertising industry. We are excited to embark on this new trust phase of the Programme, proving the accountable and responsive attitude of the industry to self-regulate, and today’s announcement highlights just how far the EU Self-Regulatory Programme has come since the public launch of the EDAA in October 2012.”
The approval of Certification Providers is just one of several recent developments of the self-regulatory initiative. In June, the EDAA announced the approval of Evidon and TRUSTe as OBA Icon Providers, and launched a pan-European consumer awareness raising campaign, with the support of national Interactive Advertising Bureaus (IABs).
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT
For more information, please contact:
Dave Barron, EDAA Project Officer (dave.barron@edaa.eu)
T: +32 (0)2 213 4180
ABOUT EDAA
The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels and is responsible for enacting key aspects of the self-regulatory initiative for Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) across Europe. EDAA principally acts as the central licensing body for the OBA Icon and provides technical means for consumers to exercise transparency and control over OBA through the www.youronlinechoices.eu online consumer choice platform. EDAA is governed by EU-level organisations which make up the value chain of OBA within Europe and acts to ensure European consistency in approach. More information can be found at www.edaa.eu.
ABOUT BPA Worldwide
BPA Worldwide is an 80+ year, not-for-profit assurance service provider originally created by the media industry to audit audience claims used in the buying and selling of advertising. Today, through its iCompli service, BPA verifies compliance to government, industry, and organizational standards as well as adherence to privacy and data protection best practices. With more than 3,000 clients in over 30 countries, BPA is a trusted resource for compliance assessment services.
For additional information on BPA Worldwide and its services, please visit http://www.bpaww.com.
ABOUT ePrivacyconsult
ePrivacyconsult is an independent certification company focusing on digital media business in Germany and Europe. The offerings from ePrivacyconsult include a broad range of certification services: ePrivacyseal, privacy evaluations, OBA Framework certification, targeting quality certification and separate privacy consulting. The services are provided in all fields of digital media including websites, mobile applications, advertising, cloud services and Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA).
Working with ePrivacyconsult companies in Germany and Europe achieve competitive advantages via actively dealing with all challenges of data protection and data security. Furthermore, ePrivacyconsult advises companies on all digital data protection issues and coordinates discussions with official privacy authorities. ePrivacyseal is a data privacy seal which is awarded to companies or products for compliance with high standards of data privacy designed to comply with strict German Federal Data Protection law and EU Privacy regulations.
ePrivacyconsult was founded by an expert team under the lead of Prof. Dr. Christoph Bauer, all experts having very high know how and long term experience in the data protection and privacy sector. For more information go to www.eprivacyconsult.com.
ABOUT TRUSTe
TRUSTe is the leading global Data Privacy Management (DPM) company and powers trust in the data economy by enabling businesses to safely collect and use customer data across web, mobile, cloud and advertising channels. Our cloud-based Data Privacy Management Platform delivers innovative technology products, including website monitoring and advertising compliance controls – along with privacy assessments and certifications. More than 5,000 companies worldwide, including Apple, Disney, eBay, Forbes, LinkedIn and Oracle rely on our DPM platform and globally recognised Certified Privacy Seal to protect / enhance their brand, drive user engagement and minimise compliance risk. For more information go to http://www.truste.eu.
