What the Heck is Trust and Safety?

Here are some of the companies that have “Trust and Safety” initiatives: eBay, Airbnb, Twitter, Upwork, TaskRabbit, etc.

What is Trust and Safety? How does it compare and contrast with fraud?

When I google the word fraud, here is what it says: “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain”. Two nouns are important in this definition: deception and gain, they describe how and intention.

Trust and Safety is a term commonly used on platforms where people interact. It is the foundation to enable unfamiliar or total strangers to treat each other peacefully and fairly. When such platforms involve transactions or trading, they are called marketplaces, such as eBay; but they don’t have to involve money, for example, a dating service needs Trust and Safety as much as a marketplace. Another example is the new Trust and Safety Council at Twitter.

Trust, to some extent, is a perception, but its basis is safety. Only when people feel confident and comfortable about the safety of their presence and activities, in other words, there is no negative implication or loss to themselves, then they trust the platform and other people on the platform.

Trust and Safety is often more policy-driven. Unlike fraud which bears a universal understanding, policies are designed and put in place stragetically. The policy teams choose and decide on what policies curate the desired culture (and user base) of a platform, as well as bring the maximum business returns.

Let’s look at some examples.

Case #1:

A stolen credit card is used at an online merchant by a fraudster. The legit account owner discovers the unauthorized charge when she reviews her monthly statement.

It’s clearly fraud, payment fraud. The legit account owner of the stolen card and the merchant are victims of identity theft.

Is this a safety issue on the merchant? A general sentiment is that the merchant shouldn’t have allowed the transaction, or, some might even blame the merchant for the fact the card is stolen. Hardly anyone blames the issuing bank that has OK’ed the transaction. Or, more interestingly, people will blame the merchant more than the fraudsters themselves – after all, fraudsters are virtual, merchant’s name is on the statement.

Though the merchant is a victim, probably has lost both the funds and the goods, has had to pay the chargeback fees, is not involved in any criminal activities of stealing credit card numbers, they still lose the battle of trust.

As a merchant, whether they like it or not, they need to manage payment fraud rate, not just to reduce the financial losses, but to protect brand and reputation, to build trust among their customers.

Case #2:

On a platform that two parties can rate each other, party A gives a low rating to party B because of the poor service provided by B; B, on learning it, gives a low rating to A even though A hasn’t done anything wrong.

This is called retaliation. It’s harmful to the platform, and creates hostility for good citizens on the platform. The consequence of uncontrolled rating retaliation can easily result in loss of good customers, and making the rating system degrade severely.

Is this fraud? Nope. Surely, B doesn’t tell the truth by giving a wrong rating, but there is no financial gain involved. Is this involving Trust and Safety? Absolutely. People will no longer feel safe to express their true opinions, therefore, will probably part the untrustworthy platform.

Case #3:

A data breach happens at a company in which customer’s identity data has been stolen.

It’s a security incident. Hackers have successfully broken into the systems, bypassing security protection.

It’s not fraud. Breaking into protected data is more violence than deception. Plus, it’s unclear how these stolen identity data will be used (well, likely they will be used in some fraud eventually).

Is this involving Trust and Safety. Yes! Customers lose confidence in businesses who cannot properly protect their private data, as a result, the businesses lose their trust as well as their business.

Case #4

Sellers on an online marketplace sell counterfeit luxury items such as fake Tiffany jewelries at a very low price. These items are clearly described as imitations, but carry the Tiffany label and trademark colored boxes.

It's not fraud, because the sellers are honest at disclosing the inauthenticity. They also don't sell them at the same price as authentic items.

However, as a consumer who wants to buy authentic jewelries, she won't be as comfortable shopping at this marketplace knowing that some of them could be fake (even though they are marked so). For those consumers, a marketplace that takes control and makes sure the quality and authenticity of all items is a more preferred shopping destination.

Trust and Safety covers a lot more areas than the more focused Fraud and Security. If I may, it's a super set that includes fraud and security.

Though the term is popular within platforms, it's absolutely applicable to merchants. It is crucial to build a trusted brand where customers don't worry about possibility of being hurt or getting taken advantage of.