Frequently Asked Questions about the EV Guidelines Why is there a need for EV Certificates? When the Extended Validation Guidelines were developed there were no generally-accepted standards for validating the entity identity information contained in some certificates and a degree of uncertainty arose in users’ minds over the significance of the padlock icon. URLs that commonly appear in browser address bars have become obscure and users can no longer use these to assure themselves that they are transacting with the web site that they expect. Phishing web sites that used counterfeit content to trick users into providing login credentials were a concern. Therefore, members of the CA/Browser Forum identified the need for better security indications to assure users about the web sites they were visiting and to do it in a way that clearly indicated to users the identity of the business entity with whom they were doing business. This had to be done in a way that established standards for the trustworthiness of that identity information and with a common message to end users about such assurance. Hence, the major browser suppliers and a group of CAs came together to develop the Extended Validation Guidelines. At the same time, some browser suppliers developed user interface standards for displaying that information to emphasize its trustworthiness.