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eBay Revises, Explains Its Privacy Policy

Posted by michael on from the no-reserve-price dept.

Prof. Jonathan Ezor, Touro Institute for Business, writes "eBay has just announced it will change its privacy policy, and has posted a summary of its changes. Good discussion of how and why they provide information to internal service providers, a point missed by many privacy policies."

12 comments

  1. What if I do not agree with the change? by jsse · · Score: 3, Funny

    A. If you do not wish to accept the revised Privacy Policy once it is effective (on May 25, 2003), you may cancel your eBay registration by emailing decline@ebay.com

    Wrong. Post it on /. and have the angry mob ambush the bastard.

  2. what else does it say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Please be aware that while we have summarized the major changes below, there are additional changes that are not summarized and therefore, you are encouraged to read the Privacy Policy at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html to see the complete revision.

    I don't know about you folks, but whenever an agreement is changed, I get a little scared. What did they hide and bury in there?

    And note that the whole agreement was changed, not just the privacy policy.

    Has anybody actually *read* the policy?

    I've been keeping copies of paypal's 10+ different agreements so I can run diff when the new ones come out, but I haven't done this for eBay yet. Anybody know exactly what's changed?

    1. Re:what else does it say? by evronm · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I don't know about you folks, but whenever an agreement is changed, I get a little scared. What did they hide and bury in there?

      Me too. However, when a full month is given to accept/decline the changes, along with (really easy) instruction on declining, I tend to relax a little.

      Has anybody actually *read* the policy?

      No! And I'll tell you why I didn't: IANAL, and as such, I can't understand it in any way that is actually pertinent to litigation.

      We live in a state that is owned an run by lawyers. Whatever understanding we mortals may have of legal documents can be twisted to mean exactly the opposite by a skilled lawyer.

      I'm not saying I like this state of affairs. I actually hate it more than words can describe, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I just try to live with it and lay low...

      If anyone wants to start a second American Revolution to take the country back from the lawyers, I'm game :-).

      --
      Follow the adventures of the new wandering jews
    2. Re:what else does it say? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but they put a description of the changes (in plain English) in FAQs, which the email linked to.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    3. Re:what else does it say? by Senior+Frac · · Score: 1

      However, when a full month is given to accept/decline the changes, along with (really easy) instruction on declining, I tend to relax a little.

      But, do they actually let you decline?

      I ask this because, starting in 1999, my privacy preferences were explicitly violated by them. Over the next 2 years I tried to stop being a customer of eBay, to no avail. Including attempting to email decline@ebay.com. It didn't work, they kept sending me email.

      The whole sordid thing only ended once the old email address I used back then expired. Only then. I can conclusively say their privacy policy isn't worth a thing and I can back it up with documentation.

  3. Popular Story by jpsst34 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Considering that this story was posted hours ago and mine is going to be the third post, it makes me ask, "Does anyone still use eBay?" I got an email from them this morning about policy changes, but I didn't read it since I haven't used their auction in ages.

    --
    How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
    1. Re:Popular Story by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1
      I got an email from them this morning about policy changes, but I didn't read it since I haven't used their auction in ages.

      I hadn't used it in quite a while either, just re-activated my account for one auction I found through a multi-site search engine.

      I usually look for stuff on Yahoo! auctions if I'm shopping for second-hand electronics and stuff. Where do you look besides eBay?

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    2. Re:Popular Story by tha_mink · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, considering they presently have about 10,870,470 current auctions, I would say "Yes", some folks still use ebay. The better question is "Does anyone care about ebay's privacy policy". (probably not)

      --
      You'll have that sometimes...
    3. Re:Popular Story by Neophytus · · Score: 1

      it didnt make the front page, therefore nobody cares.

  4. PayPal has had about 200 agreements by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    PayPal has had about 200 user agreements since its inception. The agreement would sometimes change five times in a month.

  5. Funny you should say that.... by Kibo · · Score: 1

    If anyone wants to start a second American Revolution to take the country back from the lawyers, I'm game :-).

    Count me in. I'd love to see Eugene Levy's foreign policy in action.

    --
    --Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
  6. validating email addresses by RGRistroph · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If you look at the email they sent you, the url to the new agreement contains a long random looking string which then re-directs to actual agreement, which has a human-sensible url.

    It is likely that they are tracking which email addresses generated a visit to the page.

    I've pasted below the URL's from my message, perhaps someone else can do the same for there's, and we can confirm they are different.

    Feel free to visit these URLs and help screw up their stats a bit.

    http://member.ebay.com/ad/ck/1065-13204-1784-12?m= 3-40&e=c4894d627898

    http://member.ebay.com/ad/ck/1065-13204-1784-12?m= 2-40&e=c4894d627898

    http://member.ebay.com/ad/ck/1065-13204-1784-12?m= 1-40&e=c4894d627898

    http://member.ebay.com/ad/ck/1065-13204-1784-12?m= 4-40&e=c4894d627898

    The "m=" part goes up to 9.