"When a stranger promises ‘you can trust me,’ most people know to be extra vigilant.  What conclusion should users draw when a Web site touts a seal proclaiming its trustworthiness?  Some sites that are widely regarded as extremely trustworthy present such seals.  But those same seals feature prominently on sites that seek to scam users—whether through spyware infections, spam, or other unsavory practices,” says Harvard Ph.D. candidate and leading spyware/adware expert.

Sure to send ripples throughout the blogosphere, media and perhaps corporate boardrooms, Edelman has released a new paper (summary here) entitled Adverse Selection in Online “Trust” Authorities.  The paper demonstrates how TRUSTe (the hands-down authority in trustworthiness) has sold out to the most un-trustworthy of companies—those operating various “Internet pollution” type of operations; largely adware and spyware firms that pummel consumers and corporate user computers into oblivion. 

TRUSTe calls itself “an independent, nonprofit enabling trust based on privacy for personal information on the Internet.” They “certify and monitor Web site privacy and email policies, monitor practices, and resolve thousands of consumer privacy problems every year.”

I call it yet another failed attempt for industry to self-police itself.

Featured guests include Direct-Revenue.com, Funwebproducts.com, Maxmoolah.com, Webhancer.com.