The success of the online business has been well received and has been one of the greatest positive collateral effects of the internet revolution. However, it has also raised the specter of threats from hackers and it has become necessary to protect the interests of both consumers and merchants from this scourge. This has led to the birth of service providers who specialize in website verification like Trust Guard, Control Scan, MacAfee secure to name a few.

Thanks to these service providers, the internet is a much safer place for online shopping. While companies like Trust Guard also provide business verification and also privacy verification services, all of them provide the basic certified ASV PCI scanning service that is a vital element in offering protection to the consumers and merchants against any threats from hackers. This kind of web verification methodology takes care of the business aspects in terms of physical presence and whether the said business has a privacy document and policy in place that is in consonance with federal laws drawn up for the online business.

A recent survey conducted showed that online customers look specifically for such third party approval evidences to get the comfort feeling within themselves that they are dealing with a secure website. This sort of confidence building tool
is referred to as the trust seals or verification certificates. Essentially, an online shopper has the following questions in mind when he visits an ecommerce website.

1. How secure is the privacy?
2. How secure is the website?
3. Is this business verified and certified by a third party service provider and have they put their
   seal of approval?

To address these concerns, three seals namely, Security seals, Privacy seals and Business Identity seals have come into play.

1. The Security seal takes care of credit card information and other personal data provided at the time of shopping by the customer. They are of two kinds – the Server Verification done by McAfee and Control Scan and the Site Verification which addresses the basic security features of the website.
2. Privacy Seals deal with the protection of sensitive information that is disclosed by the customer and this is provided by TRUSTe, Trust Guard and Better Business Bureau.
3. Business Identity Seals as mentioned addresses the key apprehension of customers regarding whether the said business really exists and has an email, physical location and phone numbers as supports. These are again taken care by Better Business Bureau, Validated Site and Trust Guard.

Merchants into the online business can have the option of any of these three seals based on their business
requirements and set up. These measures will indeed provide a great deal of comfort level to the online customer and help in driving more traffic to such websites.

A comparison of the various services and benefits offered by the different companies in this business
is given below:

Features	Trust Guard (Multi-Seal Pack)	McAfee Secure (Hacker Safe)	Control Scan	Truste	BBB (BBBonline)	VeriSign
Price Range ($)	$497 to $697* (Individual Seals Starting at $159)	$959 to $5,000*	$939 to $1,509*	$1,000 to $14,000*	$355 to $4,000*	$995
PCI Scanning w/ Seal
Security Seal
Privacy Seal
Business Seal
Certified Seal
Video Security Seal
Split Testing (Built In)
Privacy Policy Generator
Customizable Seals
Multiple Colors
Multiple Sizes & Styles
Benefits	Trust Guard (Multi-Seal Pack)	McAfee Secure (Hacker Safe)	Control Scan	Truste	BBB (BBBonline)	VeriSign
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