Minimum Privacy Guidelines for Businesses:

1. If your company sells or shares the names, postal addresses, email addresses, website information, buying patterns, or any other personal information gathered in any manner through your website or through email responses, you must CLEARLY INFORM users or visitors using your site of your policies and secure their permission in advance.  Your privacy statement should state what kind of information you collect from users and customers and how that information is used.

2. Email mass-mailings , if any, must be "opt-in" mailings that require visitors to actively choose to be on the mailing list.  That is, forms used must require that the user select the option by checking a box or making a request rather than by failing to "un-check" a box.  For example:

   Acceptable format:
   Please add me to your mailing list

   Unacceptable format:
   Please add me to your mailing list

3. All mailings from your site must clearly identify the source of the email, the company or individual sending the email, and the company's or individual's telephone number and postal address.

4. If databases containing personal user information are kept on a web server, this information must be gathered and kept in a secure (encrypted) area on the server. Your privacy statement must state how you plan to use information gathered from your website or your email correspondence, even if it is only for internal marketing decisions.

5. If you collect personal credit card information or other personally identifiable information, your privacy policy must state the security procedures you use to prevent misuse of the information.  Minimum procedures must include encryption of the data while online and while data is being transmitted.

6. If your company's web site shares its information with anyone else, you must mention this in your privacy statement, and give users the option of restricting such use.

7. Your privacy statement must include the method available to users to edit or delete their personal information maintained by your company.

Before we will issue the PrivacySecure® logo for your website and prepare the click-though page on our site, you must meet our basic qualifications:

• You must have been in business for at least one year

• You must have a satisfactory record of complaint resolution with Better Business Bureau

• You must use a secure server for online sales

• You must be willing to have a Dun & Bradstreet credit check

We must approve your privacy statement and receive a signed agreement from your company. We must also receive the payment of your annual fee. Please close this window and complete the application, so we can begin processing it immediately.