F.A.Q About TrustSG Application

What is the benefit of having TrustSG seal/logo inside my website?

The answer is simply credibility and image. Imagine a customer visit your website and also your competitor’s website, yours have TrustSG seal, but your competitor’s doesn’t, which one do you think the customer prefer to liaise with?

Of course most people will goes for something accredited or acknowledged by a third party, moreover it’s TrustSG body. It’s like we prefer to liaise with company that accredited with ISO, or HACCP (Food Industry), etc, but of course TrustSG context will be within your website only.

What is the difference between TrustSG and Case Trust?

TrustSG clearly to accredit your website ONLY, not others. As auditor, we make sure your website follow TrustSG strict rules that doesn’t have any misleading information towards public. The context of TrustSG are within your website. For example, if your website have online payment services, we have to make sure the payment process are not a fraud, and must be according to the TrustSG principles. While Case Trust is another accreditation that has nothing to do with TrustSG. For Case Trust, please refer to the official accreditation organization for more information.

Apply for free? I do not believe in free launch in this world…

Application for TrustSG is not free, it cost $3000 to apply this accreditation. Until the grants came in about a year ago from iDA Singapore and the NTC & appointed organization to award the seal, such as CommerceNet Singapore Ltd www.cnsg.com.sg to promote TrustSG awareness among Singapore companies. The grants provide full subsidy, means this $3000 waived by iDA Singapore and CommerceNet Singapore Ltd.

No other hidden fee? Sure?

Not really, although it’s subsidized 100%, there is still S$100 non-refundable application fee. But good news is, if you apply via Fort Digital, this $100 is waived by us.

How about renewal fee?

All accreditation requires audit every certain period. For TrustSG is every year. For first year, the application, audit ,etc are fully subsidized, for subsequent year, there is renewal/re-audit fee of around $800 (depends on company size). But it’s up to company whether to extend or not. If you want to drop it after first year, it’s totally no problem at all. Some company found it’s very useful to boost company image among public, then they renew it. Some might found too costly, then they are free to drop it. Not all companies drop the program because of cost matter, some feels 1 year is good enough to boost their company profile, means the company utilize the subsidy of first year. But most companies renew the program so far because it benefit the company tremendously in terms of increasing company’s image. Note that, this renewal fee is considered low compare with other accreditation such as ISO.

Then what Fort Digital gets by helping companies to apply?

We are selected auditor to audit by CommerceNet Singapore Ltd, therefore, small parts of the grants will be paid to us for helping you all to apply, audit and submit all applications. The S$100 application fee waived in fact is not from CommerceNet Singapore Ltd, but Fort Digital our self, we decided to pay for each every applicant to NTC because this program’s subsidy is going to end soon, therefore we go full throttle to help as many companies to get the seal as possible, consider this is the last batch. Note that if you apply via other company, the S$100 application fee still applies.

You always mentioned the word NTC, who are they?

The National Trust Council (NTC) was formed in March 2001 to ensure that relevant concerns from industry are addressed. The council is industry led with support from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, then Minister for Communications and Information Technology officially announced the formation of the National Trust Council on 7 Mar 2001.

Mission:

The mission of the National Trust Council is to build confidence amongst businesses and consumers so as to spur e-Commerce growth in Singapore.

Purpose:

* Promote adoption of TrustSg programme among businesses and the

   government.

* Educate Consumer and business users on security best practices for online

   transactions and heighten awareness and appreciation of trustmarks.

* Promote adoption of Risk Management Framework to reduce fraud in e-

   commerce transactions with B2C merchants.

* Facilitate cross border recognition of trustmarks and internationalize TrustSg

   through fora such as the Asia Trustmark Alliance to position Singapore as a

   thought leader.

* Identify and recommend policy changes in relevant areas to promote online   

   security and best practices to build confidence among businesses and

   consumers.

Composition:

The National Trust Council is currently chaired by Mr Inderjit Singh, Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC and Chief Executive Officer, Infiniti Solutions. The Council includes members representing both private and public sectors.

Please click here to meet the Council members.

This article is copied from TrustSG website at www.trustsg.org

You always mention CommerceNet Singapore Ltd, who are they?

CommerceNet Singapore has been appointed by the National Trust Council (NTC) as the Authorised Code Owner (ACO) for the TrustSg seal for both the B2B and B2C sectors.

Following the appointment, CNSG will be authorised to award the TrustSg seal to Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Web-based retailers who are accredited under its ConsumerTrust Global Reliability Programme and award the TrustSg seal to Business-to-Business (B2B) eBusinesses that are accredited under its BusinessTrust Global Reliability Programme. CNSG will be authorised to award the TrustSg seal to B2B and B2C companies until their status as ACO expires on 31st July 2007.

The TrustSg seal will be accompanied by the ConsumerTrust trustmark for the B2C ebusinesses and displayed by licensees of ConsumerTrust on their websites. Accredited B2B ebusinesses will now display the BusinessTrust Trustmark with the TrustSg seal.

The ConsumerTrust Code of Practice and the BusinessTrust Code of Practice are based on the international practices of trustmarks established in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe) guidelines and several other global regulatory standards.

This article is copied from CommerceNet Singapore Ltd's website at www.cnsg.com.sg 

Will Fort Digital audit my website again for next year renewal?

Unlikely. We only help for first year application. Subsequent year CommerceNet Singapore Ltd will step in and audit themselves. But we might comes in again if requested by the bodies.

What is my responsibility of having TrustSG seals in my website

Of course from day one you think about to apply TrustSG seal, means you are ready to show to public that your company can be trusted to conduct business with. If your intention to get this seal just for “show”, it is not appropriate. So to show this trust to public, your website must not misleading in the very first place. Basically it’s pretty common sense about TrustSG, it is like the trust among employee and employer. For example, employer will pay to the employee the amount of salary he/she promised, and employee have responsibilities to delivery the jobs. Of course in TrustSG context, we have proper documentation rather than just “trust”, therefore the NTC set certain rules and principles for you to follow. Which is our job to check your website (audit) and recommend the changes necessary. For different trade have different rules, we will sort it out for you.

You mentioned I need to change my website to comply with TrustSG rules, what are ?

In fact not change, but add, in most cases. Depends on your website, after we audit, we will let you know which pages are missing or need to be add. For most cases if your company doesn’t have online payment/purchase, 2 pages that definitely need to be add (if doesn’t have currently) are :

Terms & Conditions / Web Policy : this is the parts where you protect your company. Means all terms and conditions for public to use your website. For example, your terms for delivery is free for local and extra charges for overseas, so, you can state this sentence inside. Most companies already have terms & conditions for their own website, but if you don’t have, we have a certain standard template for most industries to use (you can modify yourself later).

Privacy Policy : This is to protect customer who visit or use your website. Same like Web Policy, we also have a certain standard template for most industries to use (you can modify yourself later) if you don’t have. This is to protect public side, overall idea is for company to protect customer/public information and do not disclose whatever information you have about the customer to third party without any consent.

Other pages need to be tidy up such as Contact Us page, where it must follow TrustSG principles such as state company's operating hours, etc. We will let you know all of these changes after we audit.

I got confuse, you have three logo, one with moving animation, the other are Consumer Trust and Business Trust…..

During the audit, Fort Digital will conduct interview with the company and ask how many percents the business goes to B2B and B2C. B2B means business with another entity, while B2C means business with end-user (individual). For example, a curtain company, their business might be 50% B2B and 50%B2C, while a semiconductor company business is 100% B2B. Although you do not need to be exact, but please provide nearest percentage of your business pie percentage. It will be weird if a semiconductor company has B2C seal in their website, as we know they never sell their products directly to end user, it will raise eyebrows of course.

So, if you declare your company both B2B & B2C, you will be granted both seal to be put into your website.

If your company purely B2B, only Business Trust seal will be granted.

Either B2B or B2C, you will still get the moving globe animation seal.

What if there is company who doesn’t apply properly and simply put the logo inside their website?

Totally not possible. Remember the moving globe with TrustSG words seal? It’s not simply a picture or flash animation. It’s a code that inserted into your html page. And the code contains serial numbers/id that link to TrustSG main server. If your code is not valid, the seal won’t appear.

I never heard about Fort Digital, can I check your company credibility for helping us applying for TrustSG?

Definitely. We are selected auditor by  CommerceNet Singapore Ltd.

CommerceNet Singapore Ltd contact is :

35, Selegie Road, #09-25, Parklane, Singapore 188307

Tel:  65 -  6337 3808 Fax: 65 -  6337 7108   

Send your enquiries to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website : www.cnsg.com.sg

Contact Person : Mr Ramesh   

Is there any website I can get more information on this TrustSG?

Of course , go to :

http://www.trustsg.org  : main website with most information

http://www.ida.gov.sg/Manpower/20060418162515.aspx

iDA website about TrustSG

http://www.ida.gov.sg/News%20and%20Events/20061116120053.aspx?getPagetype=20

another iDA website about TrustSG