# A Customer-Centric View of E-Commerce Security and Privacy
## 5 Discussion
### Practical Implications  
On the basis of our findings, we propose a model for improving customer trust and privacy in E-commerce in Pakistan. As shown in Figure 4, we identified four important actors: customers, vendors, technology, and the government. Different actions were identified which need to be carried out by each of the actors to enhance trust and privacy of end-users. Although product quality and price competitiveness are direct contributors to customers' trust, it has been found that customers are sometimes willing to compromise their security if they find the quality and price reasonable [17]. Therefore, we recommend that vendors should provide quality products along with a competitive price as an indirect contributor to enhancing the trust of customers. Market analysis modeling tools can help in setting a price aligned with the pricing strategy of vendors [105; 106]. Furthermore, if vendors have partnerships with known brands and advertise them on their website, then it also serves as a trust booster for customers [107]. Another important aspect that vendors need to pay more attention to is developing and displaying a use of information policy for all the information collected by them. If customers are aware of which information about themselves is being collected and how it will be used, it provides them with confidence about their security and privacy. Well-implemented opt-in and opt-out strategies by the e-commerce vendors show customers their sensitivity in preserving their customers' privacy. Another factor that can enhance customer trust in e-commerce websites is setting up a well-defined dispute resolution policy. Many respondents highlighted their fears that, in cases they end up with credit card fraud [49], the e-commerce vendors will not help them [108]. Figure 4: E-commerce trust and privacy enhancement model for Pakistan. Technological infrastructure is another important factor in fostering trust and security feeling among customers. The technological infrastructure deployed by the e-commerce vendors needs to adopt data encryption algorithms and advanced technologies such as blockchain [16] to secure communication [109]. To ensure that legitimate users can use their accounts, multifactor authentication mechanisms can be helpful; hence, the e-commerce business should implement multifactor authentication for user account management. Security and privacy badges provide users with a sense of satisfaction that the e-commerce website having such badges satisfies minimum security criteria [35]. E-commerce technical infrastructure needs to be fraud-resistant so that fraudulent transactions can be proactively responded to, and the payment mechanisms are fully secure [110]. Usability is another important contributor to enhancing customer interests [46; 48; 79]; a well-designed e-commerce platform provides customers confidence that the website is trustworthy. Features such as enhanced product displays, detailed information, and search features provide customers with a sense of security toward the e-commerce platform. A user-centric design approach to e-commerce portals can help in improving customer usage [111; 112; 113]. Adoption of advanced forensic tools can help in real-time monitoring of the network traffic, and in extracting and preserving digital evidence against e-commerce crimes. Customers are another important actor; to increase customer confidence, there are some activities required on part of the customers. Customers need to prescreen the e-commerce platforms before purchasing by reading reviews on different horizontal/vertical search engines and directories [114]. An enhanced presence on different intermediaries and media platforms gives users confidence about the authenticity and credibility of that e-commerce platform. Secondly, customers need to ensure that their devices, the vicinities where they connect to e-commerce websites from, and their network connection need to be secure.