EBay may have partially solved one issue privacy advocates had with
proposed changes in its privacy policy, but another concern
remains.
Under the old policy, eBay would share user information only with
law enforcement officials or in the case of disputes over
intellectual property, according to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove.
That has now been changed to allow the company to share user
information with other users who are involved in legal action.
That change follows a separate debate about an eBay move earlier
this year to post a simplified version of its privacy policy on its
Web site.
Changing the policy so eBay can share user information with other
users drew the ire of Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters, who
rejected the company's interpretation of its own policy.
Catlett said the policy never spells out the specific instances in
which it will share user information with other users, and he
called on eBay to detail specific conditions in which it will share
the information.
Pursglove acknowledged that the company has been criticised for
adding users to the list of people who can access information, but
he said eBay is sticking with the decision. Although some privacy
advocates have said the move could allow marketers to gain access
to user information by pretending to be other users, Pursglove
disagreed. He said the only time anyone can gain access to
information is if there is a legal need.
As for the issue that first focused attention on eBay's privacy
policies last February - the decision to post simplified
interpretations of the policy on eBay's Web site - Catlett and
fellow privacy advocate Ari Schwartz, associate director of the
Centre for Democracy and Technology, disagreed on whether that was
a step forward or back.
In an attempt to make its policies more user friendly in accordance
with Federal Trade Commission guidelines, eBay said it would post
several summaries of its privacy policy around its site, said
Pursglove. According to privacy advocates, it also added a
paragraph of very technical legal language saying that the summary
would not be legally binding. Only the full-scale privacy policy
would hold legal sway.
Privacy advocates, led by Catlett, who sent a letter to the FTC,
said eBay should drop its legalistic explanations and state its
privacy policy in clear and concise language, Schwartz said.
Pursglove said today that eBay ultimately agreed and changed the
language to read as follows:
"It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand.
We have created easy-to-read summaries, privacy principles, a
privacy chart and, are working on privacy enhancing technology to
help summarise our full privacy policy. If you have questions about
any part of this summary or if you would like more detailed
information, we encourage you to review our full privacy policy."
Pursglove said that the new language would be posted on eBay's site
today, with the new policy taking effect from 19 April. He added
that the company never had any intention of sticking with the
initial language without first hearing the opinion of privacy
advocates.
"The whole idea is to solicit feedback," Pursglove said.
Schwartz said eBay's decision to drop the legalistic language from
the summary of its privacy policy might set a "good precedent".
Catlett would not go so far.
"I'm reluctant to enthuse," he said. "They started with a bad
privacy policy and put in an outrageous clause, which they were
then forced to remove. If this is progress, we are headed for a
very bad future.
"This is a rare case where the policy became somewhat less bad,"
Catlett added.