This has been a slow erosion of privacy rights on eBay:
Here is something from April 2001
EBay amends privacy policy
By JENNIFER DISABATINO
APRIL 03, 2001
Content Type: Story
Source: Computerworld
Online auctioneer eBay Inc. has revised its privacy policy to allow the
company to share customer information in the event that eBay or one of
its subsidiaries merges with or is acquired by another company.
================================================
This is from February 2002
February 27, 2002
Change in eBay Privacy Policy Draws Protest
eBay has changed its privacy policy to warn members that it may be more
willing to give out their personal information to other users or
companies. Previously, eBay warned members that it would give out
information about them in connection with government investigations or
inquiries by companies that felt their copyrights had been violated.
Under the new policy, eBay warned it could give out 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." Jason Catlett of Junkbusters calls
this an "outrageous change" in the policy and has written a letter to
the FTC asking them to investigate.
Watchdogs rap eBay policy changes CNET News, Feb. 27, 2002
===========================
And this from February 2003:
eBay's Privacy Policy: No Need for a Court Order
February 23, 2003 - Privacy News
eBay's willingness to cooperate with law enforcement apparently extends
as far as providing information in response to an informal request --
without requiring a subpoena or court order except in "exceptional cases".
Joseph Sullivan, Director of Law Enforcement and Compliance at eBay,
apparently spoke a little too candidly to the audience at the recent
"CyberCrime 2003" conference. Haaretz obtained a recording of the talk,
which essentially gave an open invitation to law enforcement personnel
to ask for whatever information they wanted. "Tell us what you want to
ask the bad guys. We'll send them a form, signed by us, and ask them
your questions. We will send their answers directly to your e-mail."
eBay's privacy policy apparently leaves this decision completely to the
company's discretion. This policy applies to PayPal (acquired by eBay in
2002) as well.
===================================
Ebay has become a data warehousing system collecting information for
giveaway or sale.
Art
Tim Atherton wrote:
>>
>>
>>Personally, I think this is deplorable...
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Austin
>
>
> Holy s**t - I picked this up in my Austin filter - and... I agree..... I
> think I'm going to have a dizzy spell now... :-)
>
>
>
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