In Community We Trust: Online Security Communication at eBay

Abstract

In Community We Trust 2 AbstractAs e-commerce and virtual communities fundamentally change the way Americans do business and build relationships, how can people be assured of safety in unfamiliar cyber-spaces? This essay focuses on online auction eBay to understand how eBay has successfully drawn millions of users to its site in spite of perceived risks and uncertainties. It argues that eBay is, in fact, a community (of commerce), and that the rhetorical construction of "community" on the site provides a foundation for trust between users. Based on trust theory, this essay isolates eBay's "community trust" model as consisting of seven elements that work together to give users reasons to trust and to be trustworthy. Finally, the essay examines recent changes to eBay's system, suggesting that so-called improvements for control might actually weaken the "community trust" system already in place-a warning to other sites that might imitate eBay's community approach.

A conceptual framework of corporate online communication: A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective

“…Online customers still have concerns about issues such as the trustworthiness of Websites and the people running them, and the safety of transmitting sensitive information (Boyd 2002). One of the world's most successful online public sales sites, e-bay.com, is extremely successful even though online customers do not see or inspect the goods on auction.…”

“…One of the world's most successful online public sales sites, e-bay.com, is extremely successful even though online customers do not see or inspect the goods on auction. A case study by Boyd (2002) indicates that e-bay communicates safe online transactions within 'an e-bay community' and also provides online customers with control over their online experience. The success of e-bay illustrates that online messages should be communicated in an environment of customer privacy, secure transaction, error-free billing and availability of merchandise.…”

Willingness of members to participate in professional virtual communities

“…Can information be transmitted safely? (Boyd 2002). Privacy protection, security, and a risk free environment are the breakpoints for virtual community popularity (Chung et al 2010).…”

Trust-based protocols for regulating online, friend-of-a-friend communities

“…These security policies need to be designed in the manner such that, privacy and integrity of the data are maintained along with reliability and availability of the network, when demanded by users. Privacy and integrity are maintained by avoiding security breaches (Boyd 2003). Reliability and availability of FOAF records is improved by making FOAF a further decentralised system.…”

“…The Internet provides virtual meeting place by means of online communities (Preece 2000), where people may socialise, form new acquaintances, find others with similar interests and could also be used as a salient tool for commerce (Blaze, Feigenbaum, and Lacy 1996;Bidault and Jarillo 1997;Davies 2000;Castelfranchi and Tan 2001;Boyd 2003).…”