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Ebay's Flexible Privacy Policy
l2718 writes "Ha'aretz has a disquieting report on a presentation made by eBay's senior counsel to law-enforcement officials. Apparently eBay logs all user interaction with them, and will happily hand over all the information to any law-enforcement official without a warrant -- a fax is quite sufficient. He is actually proud of their 'flexible' privacy policy."
..did *his* soul go for on e-bay?
They could always just auction the entire database on eBay every once in a while.
I usually am for privacy, but you use eBay with an intent to make profit by selling your crap/loot/whatever. If you're obviously selling stolen goods on eBay, then the police should be informed.
Belgian diamonds anyone?
"I only speak the truth"
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It IS Ebays policy, apparently. They could certainly force a law enforcement agency to produce a warrant... but if they want to be more forthcoming than that, they are certainly within their rights.
Now, it may irk Ebay's USERS...
Of course, this could be open to abuse... Say you want your Ex-girlfriend's information... forge a law-enforcement agency letterhead, and fax the request from your local Kinkos (I wonder if they require a direct phone contact before they give up the goods... though that would also be easy to fake).
Hmmm... caveat emptor
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
You forgot to misspell Americans.
Most of the information is readily available to other eBay users. I think, however, that more information should be made public and readily accessible (with the exception of email addresses).
For example, the guy that sniped me a couple weeks ago, on a nice 24V, 6A power supply. I looked in his history, and saw that he'd recently bought some, ermmm, enhancement products. It's the little things (heh heh) like this that take the pain out of losing an auction.
...
What was it Kevin Mitnick said about social engineering?
I don't like butterscotch, but I do like vanilla. You don't see friggin holy wars over pudding, though, do you?
Hmm, no, I don't remember him saying that.
Nae bother
I'm gonna go out on a limb, here...
I would guess that most people (yes, EVEN student records workers) would question even a formal letter from Jackass PD.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
It's really quite easy. Offer any of a number of items for sale, and your account will soon be terminated. Just use the terms "mp3" and "cd-r" in the description of the product.
As an added bonus, for quick termination, send an anonymous e-mail to eBay mentioning the item. Then time how long it takes until you can't access your account any longer.
It's sort of like my flexible dieting policy. You know, where I eat anything I want and however much I want. I'm really proud of it as well.
Sheesh!
Four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. -C. Coolidge