Congratulations to LERSSE alumni Azadeh Mokhberi whose Master Thesis research is presented on May 13th at ACM CHI, the premier HCI conference! Azadeh has interviewed 42 Facebook Marketplace (FM) users in the US and Canada, focusing on their experiences and the factors they consider during trading decisions on FM. Key findings from the study include:
- Four Primary Categories of TPS Factors: The study identifies four main categories of factors influencing decision-making on FM: pre-existing concerns, signals, interactions, and perceived benefits. These encompass a range of elements from previous experiences and the behavior of other users to the perceived advantages of engaging in trades.
- Interplay Among TPS Factors: There is a complex interaction among the trust, privacy, and safety considerations that influence users’ decision-making processes. For example, while some users may prioritize safety by choosing public meeting places, others might see this as a risk, fearing theft or fraud.
- Challenges of Entanglement with Social Networks: Due to FM’s integration with Facebook, users often face privacy challenges related to how much personal information is shared with potential traders. This integration complicates user interactions by making personal details more accessible, which can affect both trust and safety perceptions.
- Impact on Design Recommendations: The findings suggest that SNS-based marketplaces like FM should consider more nuanced approaches to user privacy and data management to enhance trust and safety. The paper proposes that marketplace designs should better balance TPS considerations, potentially by providing clearer guidelines on data sharing and enhancing user control over personal information visibility.
- Future Research Directions: The study suggests that future research could explore ways to improve the design of FM and similar platforms to foster safer, privacy-preserving P2P trading environments. It also points to the need for investigating the specific needs and behaviors of different user demographics to tailor safer trading practices.
Overall, this research advances our understanding of the factors affecting user behavior in SNS-based marketplaces and provides insights into how these platforms can improve to better serve their users’ needs regarding trust, privacy, and safety.
This 10 minute video summary of the paper provides more details about the study methodology and findings:
Yet, more details about the study and its findings can be found in the paper itself:
A. Mkhberi, Y. Huang, G. Humbert, B. Obada-Obieh, M. Mehrabi Koushki, K. Beznosov, “Trust, Privacy, and Safety Factors Associated with Decision Making in P2P Markets Based on Social Networks: A Case Study of Facebook Marketplace in USA and Canada,” in Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), May 2024, Article No.: 948, pp. 1–25.
Media Coverage and other Discussions of the Study Findings
- The Glacier Media coverage in (same article appearing in Business in Vancouver, Times Colonist, Vancouver is Awesome, Richmond News, New West Record, Try City News, Coast Reporter, Powell River Peak, Burnaby Now, Castanet, Pique News Magazine, Delta Optimist, North Shore News, Bowen Island Undercurrent).
- Discussion on Reddit.
