Gallup Polling sums it up perfectly. “Trust is a social, economic, and political binding agent.” It is the cornerstone of friendship and caregiving in general. When we lack trust, countless social atrocities unfold – such as violence, social chaos, and many other risks. Vinton Cerf, the co-creator of the internet once said, “We didn’t focus on how you could wreck this system intentionally [when designing the internet].” Recent years have not had a good run on the internet. When looking at the fundamental values and principles that the architects of the internet had in mind, we see a clear problem. This technology was not designed with security and trust in on the agenda.
Moreover, the internet has ballooned at an unprecedented rate. In the 21st century, we need to have trust and privacy on the internet, to power and propel the digital economy. It is a major issue, there is no doubt about it. But what are the biggest issues with this problem? Society has moved towards a different method of interacting with others. This includes making transactions, communicating with others, and unfortunately, theft and scams.
The online world is global by design. You may be dealing with someone in the local area, or in a completely different hemisphere of the world. A wonderful example of this would be the infamous website – eBay. On eBay, a buyer or a seller builds his or her reputation by the ones they transact with. Buyers recognize quality sellers by whether an item arrives on time, the seller is helpful, and if the item received is the same as described in the description. Sellers can judge buyers by whether they make payments in a timely manner. This process ensure that scams and misinformation is avoidable. Occasionally though, some folks stumble upon a seller who sends you a completely worthless, broken or useless item, or simply doesn’t send you anything at all. We have all been there, and it is not a fun place to be.
Some sellers scam their buyers. It is unavoidable. It even happens on websites such as Amazon, where the transactions are seemingly much more reliable. This phenomenon is an unavoidable consequence of the internet but is being fixed. More on that later.
When you look at finance with a broader scope, you see the big issue of trust in crowdfunding. When brands start to get funding on crowdfunding websites, many run into the issue of trust. If a company has no prior record, then they have no chance at generating credibility with investors. Without a trustworthy reputation, you will fail to meet your targets, and ultimately achieve nothing. Examples of places where this happens would be Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and more.
Now, we look at travel. Many sites such as Airbnb are the goto for many people when looking for a long-term rental or if they are stuck in a sticky situation. However, websites like Airbnb have had a track record of being unreliable, not as described, and in some cases, inhabitable and dangerous. Asherfergusson.com found that, after analyzing many Airbnb horror stories about vile properties and crooked hosts, background and ID checks are not mandatory, and often lead to big issues. For example, if a host gets permanently banned from the website, they can relist their property through a new account using the exact same prices. This is not acceptable and creates countless trust issues.
Lastly, we have websites such as Freecycle and Freegle. Seemingly innocent, these websites consist of local communities giving away free items to others, when they don’t need them anymore. Many folks on freecycle have been caught on freecycle simply saying, “curb pickup”, and “first come first serve”, leading to a lack of etiquette and borderline behavior. On top of that, many of the items on these websites are often in very bad condition, leading a loss of trust in the object sharing community. This is disappointing.
The final result is inevitable and saddening. We are losing trust on the internet, and at a huge rate.
The Conversation notes that for governments, maintaining trust in the digital economy is of the utmost importance, as the digital economy is the fastest growing part of a country’s economy. In the US, the digital economy has been growing at an average rate of 3 times of the overall economy over the last 10 years. Bad behavior, and a loss of trust will not help anyone.
We have lost the game, and there is no way out. At this point, we can only hope to control this issue, and not make it worse. That is why we need the new generation to lead the movement, bring back trust, and make the internet great again.
