EuroPriSe

Manufacturers or vendors of IT products or IT-based services can apply for a privacy seal on a voluntary base and use the certification to demonstrate privacy compliance of their product to customers. Customers and users can employ the certificate, issued by an independent third party, as information for their product choice. A short public report published for each certified product provides additional information on the product.

The project focused on the trans-European validation of the certification procedure and certification criteria as well as on expert admittance and accreditation of certification bodies. The procedural scheme and the general certification criteria is made publicly available to guarantee transparency. The validation is supported by trials in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and Sweden. The project started with a market, potential and legal analysis followed by the adaptation of ICPP criteria on certification and expert admittance to the European demands and trial set up. During and after trials and validation, procedures and criteria were evaluated. At the end of the project, it has been expected to grant European Privacy Seals in a final event. One of the key outputs of the project was the establishment of a transparent European Privacy Seal procedure and of a European privacy criteria catalogue based on the relevant European Directives and Regulations.