Return Path Re-Launches the Bonded Sender Program with More Rigorous Standards and New Name, Sender Score Certified; Program Evolves to Reflect Today's Reputation Standards, Using Deeper Data Sets to Gauge Program Acceptance and Compliance.

NEW YORK -- Return Path, Inc., the leading provider of email delivery assurance and whitelisting services, announced today that it has re-launched the Bonded Sender Program, changing the program name to Sender Score Certified to better reflect the high reputation standards required to become accredited in the industry's leading whitelist. In addition to the new name, the program has dropped its long-standing requirement for members to post a financial bond and added tougher compliance standards based on data available in Return Path's Sender Score Reputation Monitor database.

"Bonded Sender innovated accreditation systems when it was first introduced in 2002, and as Sender Score Certified, it once again sets the internet standard for email accreditation," said Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path. "With the robust data available in our Sender Score Reputation Monitor service, we can now rely on accurate, thorough reputation data to vet program compliance for Sender Score Certified users. The standards and metrics are transparent to all involved. Those who don't comply will be removed from the program swiftly, making the traditional bond aspect of the program an unnecessary step. Removing the bond also answers program critics and competitors who painted it -- erroneously -- as a paid spam program."

The original Bonded Sender Program admitted applicants after a rigorous third-party email privacy and practices review conducted by TRUSTe and managed compliance with data from Ironport's Spam Cop system. Those processes and partners remain intact for Sender Score Certified, but both acceptance and compliance are also now managed by a series of quantitative metrics from Return Path's Sender Score Reputation Monitor database, which measures email reputation data based on email volumes, complaint rates, identity stability, list quality and other factors for over 45 million sending IP addresses.

Sender Score Certified is the industry's leading accreditation system, used by more than 35,000 receiving domains, including MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Mail Beta and Roadrunner, covering more than 250 million email mailboxes worldwide.

"We were early adopters of the Bonded Sender Program and have always found it instrumental to our filtering processes at MSN Hotmail," said John Scarrow, general manager, Anti-Spam and Anti-Phishing Strategy Team, Microsoft Corp. "We are excited to see these tougher standards and other program enhancements made by Return Path, which we believe will help make our filtering even more accurate and the inbox experience for our customers more pristine."

With the new standards in place, Return Path has removed a quarter of the IP addresses previously allowed into the program. "Because we now track upward of 60 data points from more than 45 million email boxes when gathering reputation data, we can see with great accuracy when senders are violating the standards set forth by Sender Score Certified," said George Bilbrey, vice president and general manager of Return Path's Delivery Assurance Solutions. "Using that data, we can keep the program quality extremely high, ensuring that companies using Sender Score Certified are truly worthy of accreditation."

The privacy and program standards review component of accreditation continues to be managed by the program's founding partner TRUSTe, which adds the critical view of a trusted, neutral, non-profit industry watchdog group, Bilbrey said. Compliance in the program is now monitored using data from TRUSTe, Spam Cop and Return Path's Sender Score Reputation Monitor, providing the most robust reputation data available to an accreditation service.

"The launch of Sender Score Certified signals that email accreditation is coming of age," said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. "Now that we have over two years of experience accrediting email senders, we understand better than anyone how to distinguish the reputable from the irresponsible senders, and look forward to continuing that under an even stronger program."

About Return Path

Founded in 1999, Return Path is an e-mail performance management company dedicated to improving the reach, delivery performance and overall success of permission-based e-mail programs. More than 1,500 companies use Return Path's services to generate superior results from their e-mail programs, taking advantage of Return Path's pioneering innovation in deliverability, ECOA, list hygiene, double-opt-in list acquisition and best practices strategy. Return Path Delivery Assurance Solutions are the industry's original and premier e-mail deliverability tools and services, including Sender Score Certified for e-mail accreditation and reputation management system Sender Score Reputation Monitor. The company's investors include Sutter Hill Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, Flatiron Partners, and JP Morgan Partners. For more information, please visit www.returnpath.net, e-mail [e-mail], or call toll-free 866-362-4577.