Craig Spiezle, President of Online Trust Alliance, presented results of OTA’s Annual Trust Audit that benchmarks the security, privacy and consumer protection practices of nearly 1,000 consumer-facing websites. In its 8th year, the 2016 Audit included the top 100 media and content sites and all of DCN’s members. The objective of the study is to advance best practices in consumer and brand protection, recognize industry leaders and promote self-regulation.

According to this year’s results:

• Only 19% of DCN members made the Honor Roll
• The top two reasons for DCN members failing to make the Honor Roll were:
  • Consumer Protection – lack of email authentication which leads to ransomware and spearfishing
  • Privacy – lack of data sharing and retention disclosures and a high level of 3rd party trackers

More info on the methodology here. Those sites that qualify for the Honor Roll by achieving 80% of the available base points are recognized and listed in the report. Among this year’s Honorees are DCN members: Business Week, The New York Times and Weather.com.