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Mailshell Incorporates Postiva Trusted
Sender Technology, Building Trust-Based Email Infrastructure
to Fight Spam
Mailshell Becomes First Spam Filtering
Email Client to Incorporate Trusted Sender
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - August 22, 2002 - TRUSTe
and ePrivacy Group today announced that Mailshell, a leading
provider of anti-spam software, has integrated Postiva™
Trust Stamp technology into its web-based email client and
SpamCatcher™ software. By offering customers an additional
way to distinguish legitimate commercial email from spam,
Mailshell's SpamCatcher™ software and email client
are the first to be certified as compliant with the Postiva™
Trusted Sender Program - a cryptographically secure way
for consumers, ISPs, spam filters and email clients to distinguish
wanted and trusted email from spam. Postiva™ Trusted
Sender is a joint program of TRUSTe, the independent non-profit
organization best known for its leading privacy seal and
certification program, and ePrivacy Group, a provider of
trust technology and services.
Email problems today range from outright spoofing of legitimate
companies to fraudulent gathering of personally identifiable
information, from spreading viruses masked as security fixes
to accidental flushing of important email into the spam
bucket. With today's announcement, when a user of Mailshell's
email client receives an email with the Postiva Trusted
Sender Stamp it will have a special symbol so that they
easily identify it as trusted mail.
"Spammers intentionally emulate legitimate commercial
email and masquerade as legitimate companies. Incorporating
the Postiva™ Trusted Sender program into our email
client and SpamCatcher™ software provides an additional
way for users to distinguish between legitimate commercial
email and spam in disguise," said Eytan Urbas, vice
president at Mailshell. "This represents the first
time Mailshell has relied on a third party to authenticate
senders' legitimacy-partnering with TRUSTe and ePrivacy
Group is a natural fit for us."
ePrivacy Group's Postiva™ Trust Stamp technology enables
real-time verification that an email message is authentic
and sent by a legitimate Postiva™ Trusted Sender in
good standing. Mailshell has embedded this cryptographically
secure technology into its email client and SpamCatcher™
software to enable it to recognize and verify Postiva™
Trusted Sender email, ensure its delivery and alert the
recipient as to its validity with a special icon. Email
sent by Postiva™ Trusted Sender certified companies
assure the recipient that the message is:
- Legitimate: from a company that is verifiably compliant
with program guidelines based on fair information practice
principles and email best practices.
- Genuine: the subject line of the email accurately
reflects the content of the email.
- Accountable: consumers can bring privacy-related
problems to TRUSTe's dispute resolution program, a proven
tool that has helped thousands of consumers resolve
their disputes.
- Responsible: the email is from an opt-in list, but
also enables the recipient to easily request that they
not receive future email from the sender.
"Nearly half of all consumer privacy complaints made
to TRUSTe are email-related," said Fran Maier, TRUSTe's
Executive Director. "Establishing trust in email requires
a combination of technology, industry best practices, third-party
oversight and dispute resolution. Postiva™ Trusted
Sender is critical to protecting email for consumers and
responsible businesses."
"The problems with email have gotten so bad that trust
is no longer an option, it is a necessity," said Vince
Schiavone, chief executive officer of ePrivacy Group. "Rather
than focus on penalties to discourage spam, Postiva™
Trusted Sender raises the bar for wanted and trusted email,
securely conveying trust in a cryptographically armored
seal that is backed by TRUSTe, the leading non-profit trust
authority on the web."
"Since its inception, Mailshell has been driving innovation
in the fight against spam. By bringing trust and intelligence
to email, our technology and the Postiva™ Trusted Sender
program are a perfect complement to filtering technologies
like that of Mailshell's SpamCatcher™," said Schiavone.
About Mailshell
Mailshell (http://www.mailshell.com) is the creator of SpamCatcher™
anti-spam software and The SpamCatcher Network database
that combine to block virtually all junk email and spam.
Mailshell has been dubbed "priceless" by Forbes
magazine and among "the best ways to organize your
email" and "the best ways to stop spam" by
The Wall Street Journal. The company was founded in January
of 1999 and currently blocks spam for more than 800,000
people worldwide.
About TRUSTe
TRUSTe is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated
to enabling individuals and organizations to establish trusting
relationships based on respect for personal identity and
information in the evolving networked world. Founded in
1997, TRUSTe runs an award-winning global privacy certification
and seal program. Its seal programs are considered Safe
Harbors for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA) and the EU Safe Harbor Framework. The TRUSTe seal
is currently displayed on all of the Internet's portal sites
and has been rated as the most trust-invoking seal online
and the most visible symbol on the Internet. Today, TRUSTe
maintains the largest privacy seal program with more than
1,500 Web sites certified throughout the world.
The TRUSTe coalition of sponsoring companies includes AOL
Time Warner, Intel, Intuit, the Japan Engineers Federation
and Microsoft Corp. TRUSTe boasts a large network of online
and brick-and mortar member companies including BMW, Walt
Disney Group, and The New York Times. TRUSTe is based in
Silicon Valley with an office in Washington, DC. To learn
more about making privacy your choice, visit the TRUSTe
Web site at www.truste.org.
About ePrivacy Group
ePrivacy Group is a provider of trust technology and services.
The company's patent-pending Postiva™ technology provides
a language and framework of trust, privacy and intelligence
for messaging.
Postiva™ is an open system that extends existing messaging
infrastructure, platforms and email clients to enhance privacy
and enable powerful new functionality. The company uniquely
bundles its technology with program principles and independent,
trusted third-party oversight, creating total trust solutions
that surpass any achievable with technology alone.
ePrivacy Group is a privately held company founded by privacy,
security, and marketing experts, known for their privacy
consulting and training services to global 2000 companies,
government agencies and professional trade associations.
The company web site is eprivacygroup.com and its offices
are in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and
Europe.
About Postiva™ Trusted Sender
The Postiva™ Trusted Sender Program is a cryptographically
secure way for consumers, ISPs, spam filters and email clients
to distinguish wanted and trusted email from spam. Postiva™
Trusted Sender is a joint program by ePrivacy Group and
TRUSTe, the independent non-profit organization respected
as a leader in consumer trust and privacy protection. Companies
that wish to become Postiva™ Trusted Senders agree
to: (1) be certified by TRUSTe as compliant with the email
privacy and best practices principles of the program; (2)
install Postiva™ technology to affix cryptographically
secure trust stamps to commercial email so that consumers
can verify the authenticity of the sender, the integrity
of the email and the program compliance of the sender; (3)
participate in TRUSTe oversight and dispute resolution.
The Postiva™ Trust Stamp is universal, identifiable
in all email clients and can be verified directly by the
consumer.
About Postiva™ Trusted Sender Certified Program
for ISPs, Email Clients and Spam Filters
ISPs, email filters, and email clients that wish to block
as much spam as possible yet assure delivery of wanted and
trusted email can participate in the Postiva™ Trusted
Sender Certified program. Certified ISPs and email filters
use non-spoofable Postiva™ technology to identify and
verify Postiva™ Trusted Sender email for their customers,
adding it to their white lists to assure its delivery. Certified
email clients use a special icon to distinguish verified
Postiva™ Trusted Sender messages in the recipient's
inbox. Postiva™ Trusted Sender Certified technology
is offered free of charge as an open standard by TRUSTe
and ePrivacy Group.
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Contact:
Stefan Pollack, The Pollack PR Marketing Group, (310) 556-4443, spollack@ppmgcorp.com
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