Small E-Tailers May Not Get ‘Safe’ Mark
Claudia Race knows she must look out for scams. So as an Internet entrepreneur working out of her home in New Braunfels, Texas, Race wants to use all the tools available to assure customers they can trust the vacation-rentals service she is about to launch.
But because her small business is so new, Race said she might not qualify for the online seals of approval that
larger, established companies are getting to instruct Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to display a green address bar for “safe” when people visit her site.Once Microsoft activates the feature in version 7 of Internet Explorer in late January, a green bar will appear when the browser sees an EV certificate, usually during a transaction or login. The tool complements a newly launched filter that displays a red warning for known phishing sites and yellow for suspicious ones.
The EV certificate will tell consumers that the business does exist and operates at the location it says it does.
That’s because VeriSign and its competitors will be required to perform extensive checks to verify that the business is legally recognized by a government agency and that the address registered for the certificate is valid, such as by matching it with a government filing or visiting the business in person.
Certificate issuers also must make sure that the company owns the domain name and that the individual requesting the certificate is authorized.
“It would put me at a disadvantage,” Race said. “I do not want anyone to have any questions, hesitate or have any fear factor. They have to know that I didn’t just go grab a logo from somewhere and stick it on my site. I want them to know I’m a legitimate business.”
Photo by jazza.
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