eBay was named the Most Trusted Company for Privacy, according to a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe. The organizations conducted a two-stage survey to gauge the privacy policies and practices of leading consumer brands. First, the companies were rated as "most trusted" in an unaided survey of 6,486 adult-aged U.S. consumers. Second, an expert review panel at the Ponemon Institute judged the companies based on rigorous criteria, including the clarity and readability of privacy statements, notice, access to account information, cookie management, in- and out-of-network data sharing practices, as well as the availability of customer service staff.

Following eBay on the top 10 list were Verizon, USPS, WebMD, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Nationwide, Intuit, Yahoo and Facebook.

ReadWriteWeb, a popular blog covering Web technology news, reviews and analysis, received the news with skepticism, writing, "Although eBay and Verizon do have their merits as service providers, they hardly deserve to receive today's accolades. It looks as if these announcements are more about rewarding privacy policies rather than practices."

TRUSTe and Ponemon Institute will host a Webinar to discuss the Most Trusted Companies for Privacy awards on September 24, 2009, at 11 am PST. Larry Ponemon and TRUSTe CEO Fran Maier will present. To RSVP for the Webinar, email webinar@truste.com with the subject "Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award."