Enhancing Trust, Privacy, and Safety
on Facebook Marketplace:
Exploring User Attitudes and Behaviors

Type of project: Collaborative

Duration: 12 months

My role: Led, designed, and conducted the end to end of the project

Project Brief

As the popularity of P2P marketplaces increased, new challenges and concerns have been born surrounding trust, privacy, and safety. I identified significant gaps, discrepancies, and trade-offs in the understanding of how users manage TPS aspects during trading on FM.

Approach

I used a human-centered approach by conducting 42 one-on-one interviews with various FM users, aged 19 to 75, residing in North America.

Outcome

I developed two distinct frameworks to better understand and visualize the factors and strategies related to TPS management employed by the participants.

The research findings revealed a complex and multifaceted nature concerning trust, privacy, and safety management in FM trading. Five types of factors, including pre-existing concerns, signals, social norms, perceived benefits, and platform design specifics, were identified as influencing the prioritization and decision-making process of users regarding TPS aspects.

In addition to the factors, four distinct TPS-related strategies were identified among FM users: trader selection and screening, information collection and sharing, negotiation of in-person trading details, and in-person interaction.

The study also shed light on various challenges, tensions, trade-offs, and discrepancies faced by users when managing TPS aspects during their trading activities.

Read the whole results here.