CLEVELAND, Ohio, June 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Greetings is thrilled to take top honors for the third consecutive year being named the most trustworthy online retail website by the Online Trust Alliance (OTA). With nearly 1000 websites evaluated in this year's Online Trust Audit, AmericanGreetings.com earned this title for safeguarding data via best practices in online security, privacy and consumer protection. Since the OTA began its Online Trust Audit in 2010, American Greetings has qualified each year for the Online Trust Honor Roll and been named #1 in the online retailer sector for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The OTA, a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with industry leaders to enhance online trust, named American Greetings one of only two holdover companies from last year's top ten. Of the 500 largest online retailers audited, only 42 percent qualified for the Honor Roll – but this is a vast improvement over last year's 24 percent. This annual audit includes leading banks, retailers, social, news, media, government and Internet of Things sites, and it includes tracking of OTA members' adoption of best practices.
"We are honored to be selected again to the OTA Honor Roll and look forward to continuing this trend," said Joseph Yanoska, Executive Director of Interactive Operations at American Greetings.
"American Greetings will continue to value security, privacy and trust as the basis on which we build our consumer relationship, and we are committed to maintaining and promoting the OTA directives in these areas."
To review the complete 2015 Honor Roll report, download a copy at: https://otalliance.org/system/files/files/resource/documents/ir_500_honor_roll_ecommerce_overview.pdf
About The Online Trust Alliance (OTA)
The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is a non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust, while promoting innovation and the vitality of the Internet. Our goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users' security, privacy and identity. OTA supports collaborative public-private partnerships, benchmark reporting, meaningful self-regulation and data stewardship.
About American Greetings Corporation
As a leader in meaningful connections, American Greetings Corporation is a creator and manufacturer of innovative social expression products that assist consumers in making the world a more thoughtful and caring place. Founded in 1906, the Company's major greeting card lines are American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings and Papyrus, and other paper product offerings include DesignWare party goods and American Greetings and Plus Mark gift-wrap and boxed cards. American Greetings also has one of the largest collections of greetings on the Web, including greeting cards available at Cardstore.com and electronic greeting cards available at AmericanGreetings.com. In addition to its product lines, American Greetings also creates and licenses popular character brands through the AG Properties group. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual revenue of approximately $2 billion, and its products can be found in retail outlets worldwide. For more information on the Company, visit www.corporate.americangreetings.com.