Some possible pitfalls of crowdsourcing include the following:
Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.
Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, global language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
Below-market wages[20] or no wages at all. Barter agreements are often associated with crowdsourcing.
No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced employees.
Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
Susceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts.
Though some critics believe crowdsourcing exploits or abuses individuals for their labor, studies into the motivations of crowds have not yet shown that crowds feel exploited. On the contrary, many individuals in the crowd experience significant benefits from their participation in crowdsourcing applications.[21][22][23][24] Further authors discuss both risks and rewards of using crowdsourcing as a means of balancing global inequalities.[25]