The prestigious national INNOFINLAND 2010 prize was awarded to Web of Trust (WOT) for its innovative use of “the wisdom of the crowds” to warn Internet users when they are about to visit a website that may pose threats such as phishing, scams, identity theft or inappropriate content for children. The President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, presented the award to WOT CEO Vesa Perälä in observation of National Innovation Day on December 14th.
The theme for the 2010 INNOFINLAND prize is “Users – a Source for Innovation,” emphasizing user involvement from the very beginning of a new innovation. The free WOT browser add-on is used daily by a growing global community of 16 million users to identify sites that are untrustworthy, have poor business practices, or have inappropriate content for children.
“The WOT community detects scams and fraudsters faster and better than automated systems alone. Our community is what powers Web of Trust, and we share the INNOFINLAND prize with them,” said Mr. Perälä.
“Our goal is to have 50 million users by the end of 2011, working together to promote trust on the web,” said Deborah Salmi, Chief Marketing Officer. “Everyone from online business owners to school children doing homework benefits from using WOT’s safe surfing tool.”
Over two hundred participants took part in the annual INNOFINLAND competition. The prize is awarded to Finnish businesses, organizations, or persons whose ideas, inventions, or innovations have significantly promoted business activities, entrepreneurship in general, and the introduction of innovations to the market.