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International Conference on Trust and Trustworthy Computing

Trust 2012: Trust and Trustworthy Computing pp 308–324Cite as

Why Trust Seals Don’t Work: A Study of User Perceptions and Behavior

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Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNSC,volume 7344)

Abstract

Trust seals, such as the VeriSign and TRUSTe logos, are widely used to indicate a website is reputable. But how much protection do they offer to online shoppers? We conducted a study in which 60 experienced online shoppers rated 6 websites – with and without trust seals - based on how trustworthy they perceived them to be. Eye tracking data reveals that 38% of participants failed to notice any of the trust seals present. When seals were noticed, the ratings assigned to each website were significantly higher than for the same website without a seal, but qualitative analysis of the interview data revealed significant misconceptions of their meaning (e.g. “presence of seals automatically legitimizes any website”). Participants tended to rely on self-developed – but inaccurate – heuristics for assessing trustworthiness (e.g. perceived investment in website development, or references to other recognizable entities). We conclude that trust seals currently do not offer effective protection against scam websites; and suggest that other mechanisms – such as automatic verification of authenticity are required to support consumers’ trust decisions.

Keywords

  • trust signaling
  • e-commerce
  • trust seals

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Iacovos Kirlappos & M. Angela Sasse

  2. Department of Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Nigel Harvey

Authors
  1. Iacovos Kirlappos
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  2. M. Angela Sasse
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  3. Nigel Harvey
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Technical University Darmstadt, Hochschulstrasse 10, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Katzenbeisser & Melanie Volkamer & 

  2. Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems, Vienna University of Technology and SBA Research, Favoritenstrsse 9-11, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Edgar Weippl

  3. School of Informatics, Indiana University, 901 East Tenth Street, 47405, Bloomington, IN, USA

    L. Jean Camp

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 201 S. Columbia Street UNH-CH, 27599-3175, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Mike Reiter

  5. Huawei America R&D, 2330 Central Expressway, 95050, Santa Clara, CA, USA

    Xinwen Zhang

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kirlappos, I., Sasse, M.A., Harvey, N. (2012). Why Trust Seals Don’t Work: A Study of User Perceptions and Behavior. In: Katzenbeisser, S., Weippl, E., Camp, L.J., Volkamer, M., Reiter, M., Zhang, X. (eds) Trust and Trustworthy Computing. Trust 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7344. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30921-2_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30921-2_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30920-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30921-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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