With $200k Fine, FTC Finds Trust-e Not Very Trusty

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined TRUSTe $200,000 after finding the company failed to conduct promised annual re-certifications for more than 1,000 sites displaying its privacy seal and misrepresented its for-profit status. As part of the settlement, TRUSTe must stop making misleading claims about its certification process, provide detailed COPPA-related reporting, and retain records of its safe-harbor activities for ten years; TRUSTe states it has implemented new controls and corrected its public descriptions.