We FeeFighters help SMB's save money on credit card processing. We do need some somewhat sensitive information to run our reverse auctions, like the amount of credit card receipts a company expects. We're going through the process of TRUSTe and BBB certification. It's not really much of a process, really, you pay ~$1000 they ask a few questions and you can put the seal on your site... As we know seeing what happens in the credit card processing business, there are many companies that have A+ ratings that treat their customers like crap. Until a few months ago, Ritz Carlton, Disney, and Wolfgang Puck had F ratings but Hamas had an A grade.
(see here: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau-ritz-carlton/story?id=12151154)We're doing the TRUSTe certification, and they only asked a few cursory questions... but they present case studies with a significant bump in conversion rate (trustguard has a somewhat hilarious link on their site that says "Trustguard increases conversion rate 60%). I personally have never given any credence to a security seal on a website.
Have you seen conversion rate increases due to the presence of a security, BBB, or Trust seal? How do people feel about the seals generally?