Will Security Enhance Trust Online, or Supplant It?

Abstract

Promoters of the Internet and other digital media cite many and diverse benefits of these advances to humanity, from wide-ranging access to information and communication to enhancement of community and politics to stimulation of commerce and scientific collaboration. As the digital infrastructure has grown in size and complexity, however, even the most enthusiastic proponents acknowledge that the benefits are not inevitable but rest on a number of contingencies. Key among them is trust. Just as in conventional settings where trust improves the lives, prospects, and prosperity of individuals, relationships, and communities, so would it online, and just as distrust can degrade many dimensions of life, so can it online. Because of its importance to a flourishing online world and because trust online poses distinctive challenges, it has attracted the attention of a number of scholars, researchers, and practitioners in technical as well as nontechnical fields, which has yielded an extensive literature in scholarly and trade publications, the popular media, and government reports, and an active showing at conferences.

Keywords: trust, digital ethics, ethics in computing, security, trust online, cyberlaw, organizations, networks