Ebay Changes Privacy Policy

omarius writes: "Ebay is changing their privacy policy (the Ebay FAQ on the new policy is here). According to this article on CNET, this means they can share your auction history with anyone. I heard it this morning on NPR, and am considering cancelling my account."

Comments

eBay can

[markwelch]

I think the opening paragraph about the eBay changes is misleading, and misses the point.

Omarius wrote that eBay "can share your auction history with anyone..." What's new about that? Auction bidding has long been public, though eBay has recently started hiding some data about bidders (it says to reduce spam, some say to impair competition). Sure, I might be embarassed that someone can do a search on eBay and see what items I bid on (a Monkees LP?), and what items I bought (a porn video?), but that's been a feature of the service for years.

The real change isn't about auction activity. The "real" issues, as I understand them, are these changes:

• First, eBay is broadening its right to disclose customers' "personal information" to others. The operative language is that eBay now says it can release your personal information "as we in our sole discretion determine necessary or appropriate to maintain a level of trust and safety in our community and to enforce our user agreement, privacy policy and any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through our site." That is simply an unlimited right to do anything they want with your personal information (which I assume includes your email, address, phone, etc., and could easily include sharing your address and credit card number with any eBay merchants whose auctions you've won).

• Second, eBay now reserves the right to "suspend customers if eBay believes their actions may cause a financial loss to the company, other customers or themselves." This language could be construed to mean that anyone who criticizes eBay or any of its merchants, could be suspended because their comments might cause harm (reduced sales) to eBay or its merchant customer.

Re:eBay can

[filtrs]

As far as I can tell from reading their new policy and the FAQ, NOTHING really changed here. These changes were already made in their last revision, they simply changed language to clarify the existing changes. It was the last round of changes that really screwed their customers.

I don't care much (except for the fact that I hate to see ANY privacy lost), they aren't selling my info, eBay was never my thing.

Re:eBay can

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole "suspend customers if eBay believes their actions may cause a financial loss to the company, other customers or themselves." is a major issue that bothers me.

And your comment about suspension over criticism is a major concern. I have given good feedback ratings over auctions that went well. But now the new policy makes it sound like you could lose your account just for giving justifiable negative feedback.

Re:eBay can

[SteelAngel]

First, eBay is broadening its right to disclose customers' "personal information" to others. The operative language is that eBay now says it can release your personal information "as we in our sole discretion determine necessary or appropriate to maintain a level of trust and safety in our community and to enforce our user agreement, privacy policy and any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through our site." That is simply an unlimited right to do anything they want with your personal information (which I assume includes your email, address, phone, etc., and could easily include sharing your address and credit card number with any eBay merchants whose auctions you've won).

I think the motivation here is to hold accuntable those people who would blatantly con people out of a lot of money for false auctions. Very recently, there have been cases of 'good' eBay sellers suddenly defrauding people out of thousands of dollars. If eBay can share the person al information of those people with not just the authorities, but with the people that they have screwed over, then all power to them. Also, I don't know how they will share auction history with people, considering that I can't even tell what I bought from auctions more than 60 days ago! All I see is an auction number and the seller, no way to tell exactly what it was at all. How that is useful to a marketdroid is beyond me.

Junkbusters president/eBay

[Sheetrock]

They had a couple of sentences from Jason Catlett of Junkbusters in the article (he almost always makes an appearance when a reporter is looking for quotes on privacy flaps), but more info on the matter -- including an open letter from Mr. Catlett to eBay -- is to be had from the Junkbusters news page.

Also mentioned on the page but not related is the fact that J.C. Penney will start sharing customer information from their catalog buyer file unless they call 1-800-204-3334 or e-mail privacy@jcpenneyeservices.com to opt-out.

come on, I DARE YOU

[kootch]

come on, I dare you.

hell, I double-dog dare you. cancel it. see if you can. $5 says you can't.

and that's where they got ya. not only has ebay won the online auction space, but they also now have a unified system with half.com

but even if you thought you could cancel it and walk away, you're wrong. you're addicted. so am I... which is why I won't even pretend.

so stop your bitching. instead, mess with em. buy stupid shit that you would never buy. Hell, the other day I saw a drunken korean chick for sale. She went for $10,000,000... but I don't really think she was worth it.

but sabotage the system. there's tons of cheap stuff that'll do it for next to nothing. atleast that way you don't have to remember a new username and password.

So what?

[Kris_J]

I already disclose more information via my "About Me" page on eBay and my personal web site than eBay discloses to other eBay members. In fact, I've recently pulled a bit of information and some links to keep within eBay's guidelines.

Out of the 100+ auctions that I did in January, half a dozen people didn't pay, some of which have purposely obscured their contact information (no address, wrong phone number). Quite frankly, auctions shouldn't be nearly as anonymous as eBay makes possible.

There can be no real trust without real disclosure.

Re:So what?

[mshiltonj]

There can be no real trust without real disclosure

Trust no one.

Re:So what?

[Eppie]

EBay does not need to force disclosure to create trust. Instead, EBay could allow varying levels of disclosure (as they do now) and allow sellers to ban certain buyers or classes of buyers-- i.e. people with low feedback ratings, people who haven't provided confirmed (real world) contact information, people that won't automatically provide payment information if they win the bid. Sellers could then simply refuse to deal with whatever EBay members don't meet their criteria of trustworthiness.

This would allow users to decide how much effort or disclosure they are willing to invest in trustworthiness while still providing sellers with as much protection as they care to have.

Re:So what?

[Kris_J]

Yeah, but whenever anyone feels screwed they complain to eBay. Even if they've done something eBay told them not to do. It is not costless to eBay to allow fraud to occur on (or near!) their site.

Now, of course, the question is...

[KupekKupoppo]

...how the hell does one actually cancel their eBay account? It was easier to close my *PayPal* account than this!

-k.

Re:Now, of course, the question is...

[gibodean]

I received an email from ebay telling me about the changes, and it had a link to my user preferences page on their site. That page had an email link to a "delete account" address, which I emailed.

They emailed me back a :

Subject: Receipt of your email to eBay Customer Support

Then, followed that with a

Subject: Re: REMOVE

Thank you for writing to eBay about closing your account.

We're sorry that you want to leave our Community, but before it's final, is there anything we can do to change your mind? Please be aware this is a serious step: not only will you be blocked from eBay, and your contact information concealed, but also your Feedback Profile will no longer be available. Additionally, please remember that once the account is closed the email address will never be able to be used to open up a new account on eBay.

For more information about the entire process, please look here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/closedAccount.ht ml

If you still feel like you want to leave us, just reply to this email restating your request and I will sadly close your account permanently.

I appreciate the opportunity I've had to assist you!

So I replied, and then got another email saying "your account is in the process of being unregistered". Then, I got another one "Subject: IC FINAL NOTICE : User Account Closed per User Request Complete".

Done, at last. And I only wanted my account deleted so I didn't keep getting spam.

Over and Over and Over again....

[CDWert]

This privacy stuff is getting to the point I want to scream "NOTHING IS PRIVATE IN THE FIRST PLACE" , Learn it live with it, your habbits , are profiled, you can do one of serveral things.

Come up with a COMPLETE , ALTER Identity, mine has even its own credit rating(this happened quite by accident). Pay 500 bucks set up a corporation and accounts, set up a false name with access to those account (This IS legal, a role account) AND since all your transactions are online (banking and such you will never need an ID, BESIDES, YOU the officer has access in person if its needed) Get a corprate PO box, and youre set, never need to use your real name again, NOW this isnt to avoid law enforcment it wont work, they can still find you, BUT it will completley render useless almost all personal data collected on you for marketing purposes.

Second is completley screw with the profiling efforts, the left and right 5% are typically dismissed in marketing efforts, fall into that and they wont bother you.

Third, dont care, dont give a crap, and let em send you all the targeted marketing they want, know your information is a commodity to be sold and have fun with that, adding things like wrong phone numbers, and bizzare information whenever possible which ties into number 2.

OR the LAST reccomendation, you will go NUTS, Worry about all of this, make every effort to OPT out, calling all your creditors, and online subscription companies to find out what their OPT out policy is (they have to have one) and try to OPT OUT of all data sharing, only to find you forgot one place and your data is still EVERYWHERE !

RTFF(AQ)... :)

[ShaunC]

Q. What do I do now?

A. If you do not wish to accept the revised Privacy Policy once it is effective (May 15, 2001), you may cancel your eBay registration by emailing decline@ebay.com. [...]

No idea whether or not this works, the info eBay has on file for me is already in the hands of every marketdroid on the planet so I'll be keeping my account alive.

Shaun

Some cheaper suggestions

[ShaunC]

You give some good ideas. Here are some slightly cheaper ones, for the rest of us... Those of us who'd rather spend the $500 on beer than incorporation ;)

1. Change your phone number, today, right now. Call the phone company and request an unlisted and unpublished number. (There's a difference between unlisted and unpublished, and unless you request both, you may very well get fucked.) BellSouth charges $3/month to maintain an unlisted/unpublished number, YMMV.

2. Rent either a P.O. Box or a PMB (private mailbox at an authorized mail agent, like Mailboxes Etc.). Use this address for everything you can get away with. Hint: the only things you can't get away with are a) the utility bill, b) the phone bill, and c) the cable bill, if applicable. Yes, even your bank and the IRS will send stuff to a private mailbox!

3. If you're really freaking paranoid, move, then repeat steps 1 and 2.

4. Get caller ID. Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, answer the telephone unless you know who's calling. Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, hook up an answering machine to your phone line. Period. People you know or care about should get your cell/pager number, not your home number. Once a single telemarketing firm verifies your home number as both active and "live" (i.e. something answers) you can kiss your privacy goodbye. It's better to let it ring than to answer it.

5. Never answer the door unless you're expecting company. Even manual marketers share information. If you really stick to this principle, you may not even have to participate in the census! The poor census volunteer for my area actually had to stake me out to catch me leaving my place in order to get me to reply to the basic census questions. No, I'm not kidding.

6. Give legitimate but bogus information to anyone who requires personal info. That is, the information should check out, but it shouldn't be something that can be used to annoy you or track you down. Someone wants your address? Give them your P.O. Box or PMB. Someone wants your phone number? Give them the local dating line, or the number of your previous employer. The key is to pick information that matches your locale, and perhaps even your identity, but can't be hooked to your physical location. Hint: when subscribing for things online, all that really needs to match is the ZIP code. Pick any valid address in your ZIP code and the purchase will typically be approved.

I've been at my current place for 2 1/2 years. I get maybe 1 or 2 unidentifiable calls per week (either wrong number or out of area type calls). Someone might knock on my door once a month. And as best as I can remember, I haven't gotten a single piece of postal mail addressed to me personally that wasn't a bill. That's right, not a single piece of postal spam since I moved here. Why? Because I'm careful. The only people who know my landline phone number and postal address are the same people I trust with my life. Not fucking many.

Guard your privacy as if it were your most valuable asset. It might take some effort on the front end, but once you get used to the routines (not answering the phone, not answering the door, etc) you'll save yourself from the satanic world of marketing.

Shaun