Arlington, VA and New York, March 20, 2002 -- Ernst & Young LLP (www.ey.com), one of the world's leading professional services firms, and BBBOnLine (www.bbbonline.org), a program of the Better Business Bureau system, today announced a multifaceted strategic alliance to advance consumer trust and confidence online.

Ernst & Young has become the first professional services firm to sponsor BBBOnLine. Sponsorship provides important support to BBBOnLine's educational and trustmark programs. Ernst & Young's website, www.ey.com/us, has qualified to carry the BBBOnLine privacy seal.

Specifically:

• Ernst & Young will offer its clients an additional option of reporting on a website's compliance with key BBBOnLine Privacy program requirements when E&Y is engaged to perform recurring attestation services under the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) WebTrust Program for Online Privacy.
• Ernst & Young and BBBOnLine will develop procedures that will allow E&Y to issue a report of findings to its clients that they, in turn, can provide to BBBOnLine to use when determining whether a business meets certain BBBOnLine Privacy program eligibility requirements. Through this process, companies may be able to shorten the preparation time necessary to qualify for the BBBOnLine program by working with privacy specialists that are on-site and familiar with the company's processes.
• BBBOnLine and E&Y will cooperate on joint educational initiatives to provide consumers with timely information and businesses with real-world materials to help them meet and prove compliance with generally accepted privacy standards.
• Ernst & Young will assist BBBOnLine in performing verification tests from time-to-time on BBBOnLine Privacy program participants.

"With this alliance, a company can have an on-site examination of its systems against BBBOnLine Privacy standards conducted by a world-class accounting firm," said Ken Hunter, president of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and its BBBOnLine subsidiary. "Once accepted by BBBOnLine, the company will be able to display the consumer-friendly BBBOnLine Privacy program trustmark, in one near-seamless process. This new opportunity should prove particularly valuable for businesses with special management, disclosure or compliance burdens."

"At Ernst & Young, our experience and market research indicate continuing consumer concerns over the trustworthiness of online commerce," said Jerry DeVault, Ernst & Young's Innovative Assurance Solutions Leader. "In working with BBBOnLine, we want to help harmonize the sets of generally accepted privacy principles, share those principles broadly throughout the business and professional communities and better educate consumers and businesses about the kinds of assurance provided by privacy programs. We believe these efforts will enhance consumer confidence in the e-commerce marketplace."

The alliance builds upon the shared vision of BBBOnLine and Ernst & Young to increase the trust and confidence consumers have in their online transactions and to help businesses thrive in the electronic marketplace.

"These programs will leverage the resources of two of the most trusted names in both the old and new economy. By working together, the Better Business Bureau and Ernst & Young will add greater assurance to online privacy protection, which in turn will contribute to the future success of an increasingly Internet-dependent economy," Hunter said.

"In BBBOnLine, the Better Business Bureau system has established one of the most recognized online consumer trust marks; Ernst & Young is a global leader in providing independent verification or auditing of a business' policies and assertions. Working together, we can better realize our mutual goal of building trust and confidence in online commerce," DeVault added.

# # #

About the Council of Better Business Bureaus and BBBOnLine
The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) has more than 240 leading-edge national corporate members and serves as the umbrella organization (www.bbb.org) for the 142 Better Business Bureaus in the United States and Canada, which in turn are supported by 300,000 business members throughout North America. The first BBB was founded in 1912, and the network of BBBs has grown to become the most recognized advocate for promoting ethical business and advertising practices, providing more than 25 million instances of service to consumers and businesses each year. The BBB system is dedicated to fostering fair and honest relationships between businesses and consumers, instilling consumer confidence and contributing to an ethical business environment, in both the traditional and online marketplaces. Founded in 1997, BBBOnLine (www.bbbonline.org) is a program of the BBB system that helps consumers identify online merchants that meet BBB standards through its Reliability and Privacy "trustmark" programs, and the BBB Code of Online Business Practices. Over 10,000 web sites have qualified to display one or both of the BBBOnLine trustmarks.

About Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services, understands the business issues that are important to senior executives. With extensive business knowledge and hands-on industry experience, the global Ernst & Young organization can implement a broad array of solutions to help companies capture growth, improve financial performance and manage risk-anywhere in the world. Its 84,000 people serve as trusted business advisers in more than 130 countries, offering audit, tax, corporate finance and transaction services across all industries to many of today's leading global corporations as well as emerging growth companies. In addition, legal services are available in various parts of the world where permitted. A collection of Ernst & Young's views on a variety of business issues can be found at www.eyi.com/thoughtcenter. More information on the firm's Innovative Assurance Solutions can be found at www.ey.com/trust

Ernst & Young refers to all members of the global Ernst & Young organization, including the U.S. firm of Ernst & Young LLP.

# # #