ABOUT US

Mission
OTA's  mission is to create an online trust community, promoting business practices and technologies to enhance consumer trust and the vitality of interactive marketing , ecommerce, governmental and online financial services. OTA is the only global organization which represents the broad internet ecosystem supporting user choice and control, protection of critical infrastructure, privacy and data governance, promoting marketing best practices, balanced legislation, benchmark reporting, and self-governance.  OTA is governed by a sectorial Board and Steering Committee and is a member of leading organizations committed to collaboration, law enforcement and data sharing including the Anti-Phishing Working Group, (APWG), Digital PhishNet, InfraGard, and the London Action Plan, (LAP).

Membership Information

OTA Overview

OTA Working Committees

OTA IRS W9 Form (PDF)

OTA Bylaws (updated 8/18/11)

2011 Year-end Summary

Strategy 

• Develop: Work with stakeholders to develop and agree on methods

• Distribute: Educate and inform the industry and business
• Monitor: Track and publish progress regarding the adoption of the agreed principles

The Organization & History
Faced with increasing levels of spam and deceptive email, in early 2004, a group of business, industry and marketing leaders led by Epsilon Interactive,, Email Senders and Provider Coalition (ESPC), The Direct Marketing Association, Microsoft, Symantec and Sendmail  began meeting to pursue solutions to authenticate email and improve user confidence.  Following the FTC Authentication Summit in October 2004, a decision was made to take decisive action to advance authenticated email, and in July 2005, the first Email Authentication Summit was hosted in New York City.  Underwritten by over three dozen industry and business leaders, this premier event was sold out with over 450 attendees.  Responding to industry and governmental input, the alliance moved forward developing tools and resources, hosting the second Authentication & Reputation Summit in Chicago in April 2006.  Once again the Summit was a sell-out with over 500 attendees, followed with the successful two-day Summit in Boston in April 2007, expanding the scope to online trust and confidence. 

In September 2007, the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) was formed as an IRS and Washington State approved non-profit organization. In June 2008, AOTA hosted our 4th Summit in Seattle Washington and added an email academy to improve professional competencies.  In March 2009, the Board of Directors and Steering Committee voted to change the name  to the Online Trust Alliance, (OTA), representing a broader global view of the issues impacting consumer trust and online brand reputation.