Dear Client: In a bold effort to break down the barriers to mainstream consumer acceptance of electronic commerce, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) today announced CPA WebTrust, a unique seal of assurance for electronic commerce. CPA WebTrust is designed to assess commerce web sites to assure they meet AICPA- and CICA- defined criteria for standard business practices and controls over transaction integrity and information protection. Developed in line with the principles set forth by the White House in its "A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce," CPA WebTrust tells potential customers that a CPA (or CA in Canada) has evaluated a web site's business practices and controls and that the web site meets all the CPA WebTrust criteria. The CPA WebTrust assurance service is the initiative undertaken by the AICPA and is designed to build consumer trust and confidence in electronic commerce by monitoring and evaluating Web business practices. HOW IT WORKS The CPA WebTrust criteria examines three broad principles: Business Practices Disclosures: The web site operator discloses its business practices for electronic commerce transactions and executes transactions in accordance with its disclosed business practices. Transaction Integrity: The web site operator maintains effective controls to ensure that customers' orders placed using electronic commerce are completed and billed as agreed. Information Protection: The web site operator maintains effective controls to ensure that private customer information is protected from uses not related to its business. CPAs will examine a company's web site to evaluate whether it meets the prescribed business practices and control criteria. When successfully completed, a report indicating the site's compliance is issued and the site is granted the CPA WebTrust seal. Consumers can click on the seal to access the report, as well as the CPA WebTrust Principles and Criteria. The CPA must revisit the site and the seal must be refreshed at least every quarter. For more dynamic web sites, this frequency may be increased. And, each CPA WebTrust site will be linked to a directory of all sites bearing the seal. Unlike other services, CPA WebTrust is the only offering that combines privacy, security and sound business practices - and the only one that provides independent third-party verification by a CPA or CA with the report available to anyone who clicks on the CPA WebTrust seal. With research citing lack of security as the number-one reason not to purchase products on line, CPA WebTrust is truly needed to break down that imposing barrier. Very truly yours, KOLITA & COMPANY Certified Public Accountants
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