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:
"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.
# # #