Based on early reports, it would appear the TRUSTe Certification Program represents the first meaningful industry standards backed by some of the biggest consumer-facing software companies in the world. We’ve been clamoring for such guidelines for years and it appears we now have them. It will be interesting to see what the criteria are and what they mean for the Anti Spyware Coalition (ASC) efforts given Ari Schwartz, Yahoo and AOL, all ASC members, appear to be onboard with the TRUSTe Program. We’ll be watching closely tomorrow to see what they’ve come up with. It is disappointing to see that Microsoft and Google appear to be off the bus for now.

Here’s a few initial stories on the Program: