Topic 10 - Trust

Questions 

Question 1 - What does this meant by the following statements?

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Trust is not associative (non-symmetric)

Trust is not necessarily a two way street, just because Pieter trusts Paul does not automatically mean that Paul trusts Pieter.

Trust is not transitive

Trust does not automatically extend. Pieter and Paul trust each other but that does not mean that Pieter automatically trust the people Paul trust, and Paul does not automatically trust the people Pieter trust.

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties

Trust is established between 2 parties. If a third party joins the equation it trust is established individually between party 1 and party 3, and party 2 and party 3. 

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Paul trust Pieter directly, based on Paul's opinion and experiences with Pieter. This is direct trust. Pieter recommends Paul get legal advice from Lily because she is trustworthy. Paul trusts that Lily is trustworthy because of this recommendation. This is recommender trust.

Question 2a -  Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are also some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

http://www.eBay.com.au

Increase Trust:

1. Customer Support
2. Policies
3. Feedback Forum
4. Reputation
5. Secure Payment - uses a known payment facility

Decrease Trusts:

1. I am bias where eBay is concerned, I have used it for many years and all distrust is based on individual sellers not eBay as an entity. A good example of "trust is not transitive".

http://www.anz.com.au

Increase Trust:

1. Contact us information
2. Secure Log-in
3. Security information

Decrease Trusts:

1. None that I can see

http://www.thinkgeek.com

Increase Trust:

1. Contact us
2. Privacy and Security Information
3. Customer Service
4. Returns and Exchange information
5. Log-in

Decrease Trusts:

1. None, I like the feel if this site. 

 

http://www.paypal.com.au

PayPal seems to have changed their site and not for the better.

Increase Trust:

1. Reputation
2. Past experience

Decrease Trusts:

1. Not intuitive anymore, hard to find:
1. Contact information
2. Policies
3. Security Information.

Question 2b - Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

http://goodrichjumps.com/index.html

1. No contact information - there is a phone number that cant be trusted.
2. The fact that the site has been badly designed gives the impression that it is not to be trusted.
3. The color scheme does not allow me to spend much time on the site so I cant really investigate its authenticity. But then again the short time spent there does not offer much.