Seal of approval.

Do privacy seals make for better Web business?

Can a privacy seal increase e-commerce sales? David Elliott thinks so. The founder and president of Afri-mart.com (www.afri-mart crafts.com) is so sure of it, he plunked down $200 in March for another year's right to display the Better Business Bureau's BBBOnline (www.bbbonline .org) privacy seal on his Website.

"I want online visitors to feel more comfortable about the level of privacy that they will receive if they purchase materials from the site? explains Elliott, whose Palm Coast, Florida-based company sells African art online.

Elliott's faith was reinforced after an elderly customer shared her dilemma: She had spotted some must-have bookends on his site but was reluctant to send her credit card information through cyberspace. Elliott explained the significance of the BBBOnline seal. The woman's Internet-savvy daughter confirmed the logo's import, and the senior went shopping.

"Survey after survey shows that consumers are not engaged in e-commerce because privacy is a big concern," says Mercedes Lemp, marketing director for BBBOnline. "If they see the BBBOnline privacy seal, they know the Better Business Bureau, and that gives them a [greater] comfort level."

Privacy seal programs don't guarantee privacy, however. Their main purpose is simply to peer over the shoulders of Web businesses to see if they are honestly disclosing what they're doing with the information they collect from customers. TRUSTe, the Microsoft of seal programs with more than 2,000 members, and BBBOnline, a distant second with nearly 800, scrutinize the privacy statements of potential and current members as an accountant would the books. Webtrust (www.webtrust.com), with a handful of members, is another player.

"At the core of the privacy issue is the ability for the consumer to control the uses of their personal information," says Dave Steer, TRUSTe's spokesman. "We guarantee that [the consumer] will have that control."

Jonathan Gaw, research manager for consumer e-commerce at the Mountainview, California, office of IDC, a technology research firm, believes membership in privacy seal programs will grow because consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy.

But, he says, seal programs "haven't got much teeth to them. The only thing a seal program can do is revoke the seal. It's not like it can fine [the offending company]."

Gary Laden, director of the privacy program at BBBOnline.org, says there are consequences. "We can revoke the seal and might even make a referral to a regulatory agency such as the Federal Trade Commission"

But the bottom line is that a seal program is not a protector of privacy. The seal simply lets the consumer know up front how much information the site will reveal about them.