Week Ten Exercises

eBusiness Trust


Question One

Definitions:
Trust is not associative (non-symmetric): Just because one party trusts the other, does not mean that the level of trust is reciprocated by that other party.

Trust is not transitive: I believe this means that trust is not a gradual process, it is one or the other. You either do trust the other party or you do not. When applied to the online world, you either trust the website or seller you are dealing with or you do not trust them. It is not a case of, “I nearly trust this seller, and if they do not rip me off in the next transaction, then I will completely trust them.”

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties: I feel that this alludes to the two parties involved must be seen as equals, so as to be able to have full trust. If inequality exists, then there is always the possibility of the stronger positioned party taking advantage of the other. This element of doubt takes away the chance of trust being formed or maintained.

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust: Recommender trust I believe is taking the words of others about a party, to form an opinion, or level of trust about another party. An example of this would be ratings of an eBay seller given by past buyers, and using these ratings to gauge if a seller should be trusted.


Question Two

Elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites:
http://www.eBay.com.au: Security Centre – Encourages buyers to believe that their details are safe. Seller Ratings – To give the buyer a sense of background information about the people they are dealing with. Feedback Forums – Another form of recommender trust. Policies Page – A user can then be made aware of what their obligations are. Buyer Protection – A sense of security, and that the website will look after the buyer.
http://www.anz.com.au: Security Alerts – To give the user a sense of the bank being at the forefront of online security. Antonia Kidman – Celebrity endorsement. Friendly Faces – People in the pictures look happy, so as to put the potential new customers at ease (better than putting photos of people crying, I guess). Security and Privacy Statement – To give the impression that they are looking after the customers best interests.

http://www.ozrural.com: Phone Number and Address – Nothing to hide image. History of the business – Can be used as a get to know you type facility, like the chat page, or to prove that it is not a fly by night business. Reviews – Check out other people’s opinions, to help credibility. Chat page – mentioned above.

http://www.paypal.com.au: Security Centre – Encourages buyers to believe that their details are safe. Dad and Son Photo - People in the pictures look happy, so as to put the potential new customers at ease. Product Disclosure Agreement – Another way to appear transparent and open with the client. Privacy Statement – To give the impression that your details will remain anonymous to other people. Feedback Page – A place to vent, if needed.


Question Three

A web site that I think looks untrustworthy, is any page that is not laid out well, gives this impression. One that does not have any reviews, or feedback. A website that does not disclose any information about security.
However, the website that I will highlight is www.mininova.org/, they lost my trust, when I caught a virus off their website. It was probably partly my fault, for not having the security settings on my computer at a high enough level, but I will never trust them again.