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eBay Changes Privacy Policy
Wired reports that
eBay is changing its privacy policy.
Previously they had promised that, if the company gets sold, your personal data will not be sold. Well, now it will be. Don't like it?
Don't use eBay.
Or any other site which, as "part of an industry-wide shift in privacy policy," decides to do this too.
The funny thing is, eBay has spammed me a couple of times in the last six months with useless notices, after I specifically asked them not to. One was even to say basically, "you said you didn't want to receive spam, but we've expired that preference, so you'll have to tell us again, and meanwhile, have some spam!" But a change in their privacy policy -- they must not think that's very important, because I haven't heard a word.
Sure, but how do I get out? I haven't used them in years, but once upon a time, back when they were new and hadn't yet ran an ad I used them a couple times.
HOW DO I GET OUT OF THEIR SYSTEM! I've tried, there is no obvious way.
I did get an email saying that the privacy policy had changed. I immediately thought that they wanted to sell my data. However, I went to the FAQ about the changes, and couldn't find anything about selling data. Looking over the FAQ, I figured the most significant chage was this:
eBay is Only a Venue. We have clarified what an "Online Auction" is by adding a definition. We have not changed our stance, we are still just a venue.
I thought this was some sort of CYA thing by ebay to protect them from liability. However, after reading the Wired article, then going back, I see that the important part is this:
General. We added an assignment provision, which means we could assign this relationship to another party.
The "relationship" they talk about is your private data. So basically, you have to be a lawyer to know if you are getting screwed or not. Even when they tell you, they don't tell you! I guess you should just assume that any change in privacy policy means that they are selling your data, unless it is explicitly stated otherwise.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Check it out... in the e-mail they send to members, they don't even tell you what the new agreement is that you're agreeing to, you have to go to a web page (which can be changed w/o your knowledge). Nice way to have a binding contract done, eh?
. html#4. To see the revised User Agreement, please go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-user.html . For additional information, please visit the User Agreement FAQ which is available at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/f-agreement.html .
. html#4. To see the revised Privacy Policy please go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html .
. html. Note that it may take up to 5 days to process your request. Visit our Privacy Policy at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html and User Agreement at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-user.html if you have any questions.
Subject:
Changes to eBay User Agreement & Privacy Policy
Date:
Sat, 31 Mar 2001 04:03:20 -0800
From:
"eBay Announcements"
To:
[me]
[line of equals signs that trips the lame filter]
Changes to eBay User Agreement & Privacy Policy
[line of equals signs that trips the lame filter]
This administrative email was sent to jbridge21@earthling.net based on your account at eBay.
[line of dashes that trips the lame filter]
Official Notice of Revision to the eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy
We are committed to improving your experience at eBay. We have modified the User Agreement and Privacy Policy based on suggestions from our users and to accommodate future site improvements. The User Agreement describes your rights and responsibilities while bidding and selling at eBay while the Privacy Policy describes the information we collect about you and what may happen to that information.
To learn more about what was changed in the User Agreement, please go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/uarevision1-faq
To learn more about what was changed in the Privacy Policy, please go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/pprevision1-faq
This agreement is effective on May 21st, 2001 for new registering users, and is otherwise effective on May 15th, 2001 for all users registered prior to May 21st, 2001.
[line of dashes that trips the lame filter]
As outlined in our User Agreement, eBay will periodically send you information about site changes & enhancements. If you would like to review your notification preferences for other types of communications, please visit http://pages.ebay.com/services/myebay/optin-login
Copyright © 1995-2001 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
Please include the following text in your reply.
annmn:[deleted]
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Since they have changed their privacy policy to allow different things in the event of a buyout or merger, do you think there is such an event on the horizon?
My "loyalty discount" cards are all filled out to "Donald A. Duck" (apologies to Roy Disney). Doesn't faze the clerk at the checkout counter one bit, and keeps all that firestarter out of my mailbox.
You can probably guess what kind of email address I hand out to on-line merchants. And which phone number (apologies to whoever owns it).
Of course, as far as on-line merchants know I'm in my thirties, have tons of disposable income, thoroughly married, and own three houses. It must be true. I filled out the check boxes on the HTML form.
Marketing departments fear this stuff. When you are standing in front of the checkout counter, the nice person there can see that you are not a sixty-two year-old left-handed eskimo short-order cook, but on-line, how do you tell?
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
They even lost their BBBOnline seal. That takes quite a bit of effort. When are these companies going to learn that you can't push the consumer around? Oh yeah that's right. People are too busy pointing out the one or 2 mistakes that TrustE and BBBOnline make to pay attention to the fact that when they say a company sucks, it really does. There is no cure for stupidity folks.