eBay breaches privacy laws

[cq_tech]

2 days ago I received email notification from eBay that they had divulged my personal details to one of my previous buyers. Now that would be OK if they were currently involved in a transaction, but this particular buyer had purchased an item from me at the beginning of last month, immediately left me malicious and intentional negative feedback (which was later removed by eBay on appeal) and the transaction was concluded just on a month ago.

I immediately rang CS and was told that this shouldn't have been allowed to happen and the rep was horrified and apologised profusely. The rep then lodged a report and started an investigation into both the circumstances under which this had occurred, as well as the buyer concerned because under eBay's own User Agreement she had no right to be given my personal information. I was also told to report any form of harassment by this person, in which case further action would be taken.

I also wrote them a scathing complaint about their appalling lack of security and received this reply (salutations removed)...

Thanks for your email about the message that the buyer is asking for your contact details.

Buyer has the option to ask for your contact information if there's an existing transaction between you and your buyer. It is a common practice for your trading partner to ask for your information since this is an online business.

If you don't want to communicate with your buyer, you can just block the buyer and ignore their messages. If you will receive any harassing  emails from the buyer, please don't hesitate to contact us and we can help you in investigating the buyers account for any eBay Policy violation.

I replied immediately, pointing out once again that the transaction had been concluded a month ago and that they had no right to pass out my personal details to somebody who clearly had no need for them, other than to harass me, and received the following virtually unintelligible response...

Thank you for your email. We make sure that We still be able to hold the request an secure your privacy. We immedeately (sic) take an action. We apologize for inconvenience.

"We apologize for inconvenience" indeed! Well that's pretty bloody big of them, don't you think? As you can imagine, I'm really angry with eBay at the moment and am very much inclined to take the matter further, but in the mean time, I think it's very important that all sellers out there should know that their privacy means absolutely nothing to eBay, and they're quite happy to breach both their own User Agreement and the Australian Privacy Laws.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I would be taking it further. To me, it is no different to me giving out personal details about one of my patients. Something as simple as telling someone that Jow Blow had his appendix removed today could not only see me lose my job, it could see me in court. If the breach is bad enough, I could be gaoled.

There is a very good reason why we have such strict privacy laws in this country.....to protect our privacy. 

Pursue it.

It would be interesting to know if that last reply was from the same CS rep that sent me a reply a couple of days ago. It was in reference to reporting that seller who was selling eBay accounts and also selling feedback. The first message I sent was to explain the situation. Their first reply was thanking me for the report and asking me to send them the screenshots I took. I sent them said screenshots and this is the reply I received after that:

Thank you for getting us back.


I understand that you want to report <member name> for selling his account in regards to feedback amnipulation. I apprecaite your effort in making eBay community a safe for place to shop for buyers and sellers. No need to worry about that User since I already filed a report for that account Holder to be taken cared of. We take violatuions seriously.

If you will be incountering this again, you may refer the links below on how to report any violations with our policies.

[mbselections00]

These cases are outrageous !  And I agree, they should be taken further.

Clearly, they are both being handled by people who don't even understand plain English, let alone the severity of the situations !!  It is simply not good enough !!  They have no idea !!

The responses leave me dumbfounded.

[cq_tech]

My second reply was written by a bloke named Marc and given the spelling errors (dyslexia?) I wouldn't mind betting that he also wrote yours. I'm still trying to decipher what the hell he meant. It sounds like he's saying that they put a hold on the request, but that's not true because the original request was addressed to both myself and the buyer, and it included both our full addresses and phone numbers.

Given the above, it's pretty bloody clear now that the buyer definitely has my information in breach of eBay's own regulations, not to mention this country's Privacy Laws. Did you know that if my phone number is entered into http://www.reverseaustralia.com/ there is a link to google maps which shows the buyer exactly where I live, what my house looks like, and what security arrangements may or may not be in place?

It's a bit late now but I've changed my eBay account phone number from my landline to my mobile (as hers is) so it can never happen again, although that's unlikely to be an issue as I won't be selling after the end of this month when the new User Agreement comes into force. Nevertheless, I've now decided to contact my solicitor with a view to taking this matter as far as possible.

[lyndal1838]

I would say both those cases are being handled by ebay reps in the Philippines.  They seem to lend credence to reports of reps not understanding or speaking English very well, which I must admit has not been my experience in the past.

As the saying goes...it is hard to get good help these days.

[i-love-my-sheep]

My second reply was written by Romeo.

ROMEO, ROMEO, WHERE ART THOU ROMEO!!!

[mbselections00]

Hahaha, as lyndal said - in the Phillippines !! And not speak a very good Englis.

Sorry, it's not funny at all

[cq_tech]

eBay is so tight that I wouldn't be at all surprised if they only have one CS person answering emails, and he/she changes their name each time to give eBay users the impression that there are lots of them.

[mbselections00]

I just went to the link you posted as I had never heard of it, and amongst other things read the following :-

How does it work?

Simply type in an Australian phone number (including its area code) and hit enter. For example, the numbers 041 510 1141 or 02 9384 1128.

Why do you require me to login with my Facebook account? To protect everyone from anonymous usage of our system, we use your Facebook account to limit abuse to our system and to help law enforcement in the event of any illegal activity. We feel our service is awesome, but we want to protect everyone from abuse!

Hopefully the offending Buyer also reads this !

[mbselections00]

Have had the same thought myself