W3 Trust-Profiling Framework (W3TF) to Assess Trust and Transitivity of Trust of Web-Based Services in a Heterogeneous Web Environment

The growth of eCommerce is being hampered by a lack of trust between providers and consumers of Web-based services. While researchers in many disciplines have addressed Web trust issues, a comprehensive approach has yet to be established. This paper proposes a conceptual trust-profiling framework through a range of new user-centred trust measures. W3TF is a generic form of trust assessment that can help build user confidence in an eCommerce environment. It incorporates existing measures of trust (such as Public Key Infrastructure), takes account of consumer perceptions by identifying trust attributes, and uses Web technology (in the form of metadata), to create a practical, flexible and comprehensive approach to trust assessment.