Revisiting the role of web assurance seals in business-to-consumer electronic commerce

There is conflicting evidence as to the current level of awareness and impact of Web Assurance Seal Services (WASSs). This study examines the effects of an educational intervention designed to increase consumer's knowledge, of security and privacy aspect of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce websites and assurance seal services. The study further explores the relationships among consumers' perceptions about online security, including WASSs awareness, importance of WASS, privacy concerns, security concerns, and information quality, before and after the educational intervention. The study finds that educating consumers about the security and privacy dangers of the web, as well as the role of web assurance seals, does increase their awareness and perceived importance of the seals. However, despite this increased awareness, there is little association between these assurance seals and the two indicators of trustworthiness, concerns about privacy and perceived information quality, of an e-commerce site, even after the intervention. Only security concerns have a statistically significant relationship with WASSs awareness before and after the educational intervention. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.