Topic 10 - Trust

1) What does this meant by the following statements?

• Trust is not associative (non-symmetric) means there is no equality between parties in terms of trust. For example, the party A trust the party B at 70% and the party B does not trust the party A at all.
• Trust is not transitive means that trust could vary among different parties and each party has different degrees of trust to the others parties. For example if party A trusts party B and party B trusts party C, then party A does not trust party C because trust is not transitive.
• Trust is always between exactly 2 parties means that a party cannot trust itself. Trust involes at least 2 parties.
• Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust means that the direct trust is when a party trust someone or not with radical manner, it is like yes or no. Recommender trust is where party A trusts party B based on another party.

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.auEbay's website has a Security Centre which allows Ebay's users to learn and have more information on the website security. This security section gives confidence to users that is an important aspect for Ebay. The website's design and the fact that Ebay is a well-known brand makes the website trustworthy.

http://www.anz.com.auThe layout of the website is well structured even at the bottom of the page, users can have access to Security and Privacy Statement section. Furthermore, It has Security alertswhich show any kind of threat towards ANZ customers.

http://www.thinkgeek.comCompare to the two previous website this one looks less trustworthy but the website structure including layouts, payments, etc respect standard. Moreover, customers can leave a feed back through the Bizrate system.

http://www.paypal.com.auAs many well-known website such as Alibaba or Ebay use Paypal, we can deduct that Paypal is trustworthy. Another thing is the inclusion of the VeriSign Identify Protection logo. VeriSign is an organisation that has developed and is promoting a set of principles and criteria for WebTrust.

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

This website looks untrustworthy http://www.shoeshive.net/