FAQ
WebsiteSecure.org believes in open transparent business practices and that includes our own financial stake in website security. The following FAQ items are intended to further explain our point of view on important aspects of impartiality and customer service. As always, if you have additional questions and would like a more in-depth explanation, please contact us and we will do our best to work with you so that you are able to reach a true understanding of our organizational goals.
Q: Is WebsiteSecure.org Really A Free Service?
A: For consumers shopping online for products or services, WebsiteSecure.org is a completely free service. There are no fees to verify the security of any website in our database. We welcome you to visit our site and to make use of our services as often as you like. For business owners there is a small processing fee for having your own site certified by WebsiteSecure.org or to purchase products including domain names, SSL certificates and other online security measures.
Q: If WebsiteSecure.org Gets Paid By The Sites It Certifies, How Can It Be Impartial?
A: WebsiteSecure.org charges site owners a very small fee to cover the time and expense needed to fully evaluate and continually monitor their websites. The nominal fee charged is worth far less to us than our hard-earned reputation as an honest and trusted web security advocate among online consumers.
When we examine a website and find flaws in its security measures or policy ethics, we inform the website owner of our findings. Sites that make corrections and conform to the industry standards for ethical secure online business are welcome to display our seal and be included in our database. Sites that choose to continue providing consumers with services that are not secure or are unethical are strictly prohibited from displaying our seal. We are paid for our analysis and our time, not for inclusion in our database. Only by maintaining completely impartial and trustworthy site certification procedures can we secure our own reputation and maintain the benefit our seal provides.
Q: What If Someone Just Adds The Website Secure Seal To Their Site Without Telling You?
A: With other 'trust seal' programs this can be a very serious problem, however, WebsiteSecure.org assigns each valid website a unique certification number which is displayed at the bottom of each seal on any join page or shopping cart form. When you visit a site that displays the Website Secure Seal, you are encouraged to verify the seal by entering that unique number in the verify box on our website.
When you enter the unique number in our verification box, it shows the site name that it belongs to along with a full report about the security and ethical standards of the specific website, so you can always be sure with WebsiteSecure.org
If you find our seal on a site where the name of the site and the name on the full report are not an exact match or any other information seems to be incorrect, please Contact Enforcement and we will investigate the matter immediately. Only websites that have been certified and are presently being monitored by WebsiteSecure.org are authorized to display our official certification seal.
