Today, we’re releasing the 2013 TrustArc Transparency Report, which describes how the TrustArc data privacy management platform helped companies power trust, drive engagement and ensure privacy compliance in 2013.
The report provides an overview of technology developments in the past year, as well as an in-depth summary and analysis of the thousands of consumer privacy disputes we processed on behalf of our clients.
2013 was a Pivotal Year for Privacy
Media headlines on US government surveillance forced privacy onto center stage for both consumers and businesses alike. Interestingly, consumers remain more concerned about commercial, not government surveillance.
And not surprisingly, companies are getting serious about their global privacy and data protection compliance programs.
In this report, we talk about how TrustArc’s people, programs and technology, helped companies address their privacy compliance challenges in 2013. We discuss our continued focus on leading-edge technology solutions, including the advanced development of monitoring services and compliance controls such as Website Monitoring Service, TRUSTed Ads Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) Preference Management Controls and TRUSTed Consent Manager.
These technologies give clients a comprehensive view of first and third party activity on their online properties.
We also helped clients keep track of the many regulatory changes in the data privacy landscape in 2013: FTC revisions to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rules, new online privacy requirements in California, continued discussion around proposed changes to the EU-US and EU-Swiss Safe Harbor Agreements, as well as a revised European data protection law.
We also remained engaged in the ongoing development of global privacy frameworks – most notably as an Accountability Agent with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) System.
Key highlights from the report include:
- TRUSTe certified 7,610 online properties representing approximately 5,000 clients.
- Our Consumer Dispute Resolution Service processed 8,729 consumer complaints.
- And, our Website Monitoring Solution completed over 172,000 web site scans identifying and scoring privacy risk for over 19,000 third party trackers.