Hi Liz,
Took a look at your site. Interesting concept with targeted niche market.
There are a number of organizations on the market which offer "privacy seals" or "consumer trusted seals."
I am not familiar with all of them.
One organization is Trust-e. This organization will vet your privacy statement for you and presuming you meet their standards, allow you to put the Trust-e seal on your site.
(I notice the firm known as
Square Trade uses Trust-e to vet its privacy policy.)
Since I am not familiar with the people behind Trust-e, I can make no comment on their service. For more information
use this.
There is an organization run by J L Scott,Phd. of which I am a member known as
I-cop which is designed for the micro-business owner.
To become a member and place the
i-Cop seal on your web site, you have to agree to maintain a set of business practices, including having a privacy policy on your web site, which is vetted and approved by Dr. Scott.
Dr. Scott also arbitrates consumer disputes with members (and non-members) and she is vigorous in ensuring members maintain the highest standards in their business practices. (More than a few people have been kicked out of the organization over the years for violations.)
Apart from being able to place the membership seal on your site, you gain access to a private member's site were you can get help in running your online business, a subscription to an e-zine published by Dr. Scott known as the Internet Marketing Trade Journal (a very useful read) and of course some useful tools and services to help promote your business.
The organization was initially focused on the Internet Marketing niche, but has since broadened it's membership base. Also, the organization publishes a membership directory on a quarterly basis, which people can give away and this helps to promote your business.
For more information on i-Cop,
use this.
Trusting these comments are of assistance.
Kind regards,
John
P.S. For help in preparing a privacy policy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has placed a privacy policy generator on it's website which you can access for free. The OECD has done a lot of work in this area and the policy generator is quite good.
Use this to access the generator.
Since you are in the United States, you will also need a statement concerning people under age using your services.
The practice seems to be to state that people 18 or under can't use your site.
The Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to people 13 and under. The FTC has issued a guideline on COPPA. It is geared to those who market to children, although you may find it of value. To review the guideline
use this.
John Glube
Toronto, Canada
Hey, Did You Vote Yet On This Week's Hot Topic?