A clever prototype called Certifeye tries to bootstrap trust using existing online data from social networks. (pdf). There is clearly a lot of additional work to be done, but one expects some progress as there is a need.
Bootstrapping Trust in Online Dating: Social Verification of Online Dating Profiles
Gregory Norcie1,⋆, Emiliano De Cristofaro2, and Victoria Bellotti2
1 Indiana University 2 PARC (a Xerox Company)
Abstract.
Onlinedatingisanincreasinglythrivingbusinesswhichboastsbillion- dollar revenues and attracts users in the tens of millions. Notwithstanding its pop- ularity, online dating is not impervious to worrisome trust and privacy concerns raised by the disclosure of potentially sensitive data as well as the exposure to self-reported (and thus potentially misrepresented) information. Nonetheless, lit- tle research has, thus far, focused on how to enhance privacy and trustworthiness. In this paper, we report on a series of semi-structured interviews involving 20 participants, and show that users are significantly concerned with the veracity of online dating profiles. To address some of these concerns, we present the user- centered design of an interface, called Certifeye, which aims to bootstrap trust in online dating profiles using existing social network data. Certifeye verifies that the information users report on their online dating profile (e.g., age, relation- ship status, and/or photos) matches that displayed on their own Facebook profile. Finally, we present the results of a 161-user Mechanical Turk study assessing whether our veracity-enhancing interface successfully reduced concerns in on- line dating users and find a statistically significant trust increase.
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