posted on February 22, 2003 03:23:02 PM new
..at least as far as Ebay is concerned. Although I think we've all known that substantial information about our activities in ebay would be provided to proper authority in certain circumstances, I've never seen it so plainly put nor seen any statement of the full extent of information that could or would be provided.
Here it's said that every single byte of information which has ever passed through the ebay portal, even down to posts in their discussion boards will be provided upon request.
Nowhere in this description do I see that ebay would make any effort to verify the standing of a requestor before responding.
The purchase of Paypal by Ebay evidently extends the available information into our bank accounts and despite their claims of protection of our information which is supposed to be protected under the law, ebay, by this, does not seem to make any effort to comply with the various privacy act requirements.
It makes me wonder why John Poindexter bothered to try to form his comprehensive database - had he looked he'd have found one already in place.
posted on February 22, 2003 05:26:57 PM new"We don't make you show a subpoena, except in exceptional cases," Sullivan told his listeners. "When someone uses our site and clicks on the `I Agree' button, it is as if he agrees to let us submit all of his data to the legal authorities. Which means that if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site," he adds. He says he receives about 200 such requests a month, most of them unofficial requests in the form of an email or fax. "
"The meaning is clear. One fax to eBay from a lawman - police investigator, NSA, FBI or CIA employee, National Park ranger - and eBay sends back the user's full name, email address, home address, mailing address, home telephone number, name of company where seller is employed and user nickname. What's more, eBay will send the history of items he has browsed, feedbacks received, bids he has made, prices he has paid, and even messages sent in the site's various discussion groups. "
BEFORE anyone says that most stupid of comments, "If you aren't doing something wrong, you don't have to worry about it" I'd like to point out that mistakes get made!
Not only that, but the ID process is so bad that any con artist can get all of you personal and now, financial info and use it for identity theft or whatever else it is that they please!
So, IF you belong to Ebay or PayPal AND you suffer from Identity Theft -- I'd start out by forcing Ebay or Paypal to tell you if they have ever given out your information and to whom. If everyone did this in a case of Identity Theft or other wrongful use of their information, then with a few class-action lawsuits eBay might shape up a bit.
posted on February 22, 2003 06:39:37 PM new
The only down side to this is that P.P. or ebay would ask for a court order before they would give out any info if anyone else asked for it, but I guess that if I send a fax claiming to be a cop they would just hand this over!? Now this Im not real comfy with.
then with a few class-action lawsuits eBay might shape up a bit.
Somehow I do not think this will come about, read homeland security. This blanket will cover a lot of things.
