Thursday 9 September 2010

potential eBay privacy concerns from my limited experience. eBay help pls!

This is a very special week for me, in my eBay user history.

After having an eBay account since May 2001, I finally sold a couple of my old HiFi kits..

despite my multiple social network profiles, I am a rather private person (outside of business).

I am firm believer on the eBay/paypal model (I used paypal for a while and having been in gaming/finance sectors since 2001, totally respect the KYC procedures of paypal being one of the best).. but I noticed a potential eBay "privacy flaw" that could be exploited by unscrupulous vendors of smaller ticket items.. {for argument sake}.

That is, the transparency of previous bids/sales' feedback. (as the amount of trust is a proxy of the number of positive feedback, or just feedback of a person's previous transactions.. ), it might be one step too far for me.. try it yourself:

If you go to: http://myworld.ebay.com/[YOUR own eBay ID]

I have observed by looking at what the winners of my two hifi items (now I have got their addresses, as winning bidder), I can also see what they have purchased in the past years, and what they like, what they can afford (some expensive £2,000+ jewellery) .. and now I have their contact details, and know he/she will be collecting from me, surely this could be a major security risks!?

Is there an option that I anonymise/make private my previous bidding histories, not that I have any.. but I would like to start using eBay (when I have time) but only if I have such an option.

Signed, a curious long term member but first time user!

@GarethWong

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