Discussion
Not sure this is an SP&L issue as such, but I'm not clear where else to put it.
Quick bit of background: I auctioned a motorbike on ebay last week. The bike is faulty and the listing made this very clear, with as much information as was known. The eventual winner had sent messages asking additional questions during the week. He sniped the auction to win, in the last 5 seconds, having not bid for several days.
48 hours after the end of the auction, I got a whinging whiney message saying that he had decided that the repairs might be too expensive and he would not be purchasing. He included his mobile number, saying (really!) if you want to verbally abuse me, please do, you have every right to do so. (Yes, WTF indeed, but hey).
I didn't call, I had nothing to say to him and I wasn't about to make him feel better. I checked in with eBay to get my fees refunded, and this can only be done if I raise a case against the winning bidder and they are given 48 hours to pay up first. So, I did. He then messaged me again saying that he still wasn't going to purchase it even if I raised a non-payer case. I realise that, dufus. Again I ignored it, if in addition to being a timewasting nob he's also too thick to understand that I am currently out of pocket and would like not to be, then he's also a donkey. So, the only contact I have made was immediately after the auction when I gave him my address and asked when he would like to collect.
Fast forward to today (5 days later) and I receive an email from eBay. Following a "User Information Request" from the nob, they have provided him with the phone number held on file for me, ie my mobile. Now, I can't for one second think why he would want this; if he wants to change his mind about buying, there is the eBay message system. In fact if he has ANYTHING to say to me, there is the eBay message system. I've only received this in the past half hour and he hasn't tried to call yet (I shan't be answering if he does), but what in the name of fk gives eBay the right to give out my contact details, for an auction which has ended, to someone who didn't buy the item? Is this a DPA matter? I do realise that eBay is an all-encompassing entity which is several universes above the legal remit of any planet or deity, but still?
Quick bit of background: I auctioned a motorbike on ebay last week. The bike is faulty and the listing made this very clear, with as much information as was known. The eventual winner had sent messages asking additional questions during the week. He sniped the auction to win, in the last 5 seconds, having not bid for several days.
48 hours after the end of the auction, I got a whinging whiney message saying that he had decided that the repairs might be too expensive and he would not be purchasing. He included his mobile number, saying (really!) if you want to verbally abuse me, please do, you have every right to do so. (Yes, WTF indeed, but hey).
I didn't call, I had nothing to say to him and I wasn't about to make him feel better. I checked in with eBay to get my fees refunded, and this can only be done if I raise a case against the winning bidder and they are given 48 hours to pay up first. So, I did. He then messaged me again saying that he still wasn't going to purchase it even if I raised a non-payer case. I realise that, dufus. Again I ignored it, if in addition to being a timewasting nob he's also too thick to understand that I am currently out of pocket and would like not to be, then he's also a donkey. So, the only contact I have made was immediately after the auction when I gave him my address and asked when he would like to collect.
Fast forward to today (5 days later) and I receive an email from eBay. Following a "User Information Request" from the nob, they have provided him with the phone number held on file for me, ie my mobile. Now, I can't for one second think why he would want this; if he wants to change his mind about buying, there is the eBay message system. In fact if he has ANYTHING to say to me, there is the eBay message system. I've only received this in the past half hour and he hasn't tried to call yet (I shan't be answering if he does), but what in the name of fk gives eBay the right to give out my contact details, for an auction which has ended, to someone who didn't buy the item? Is this a DPA matter? I do realise that eBay is an all-encompassing entity which is several universes above the legal remit of any planet or deity, but still?
CAPP0 said:
what in the name of fk gives eBay the right to give out my contact details, for an auction which has ended, to someone who didn't buy the item? Is this a DPA matter? I do realise that eBay is an all-encompassing entity which is several universes above the legal remit of any planet or deity, but still?
eBay Privacy Policy : Disclosure : http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/privacy-poli...marshalla said:
CAPP0 said:
what in the name of fk gives eBay the right to give out my contact details, for an auction which has ended, to someone who didn't buy the item? Is this a DPA matter? I do realise that eBay is an all-encompassing entity which is several universes above the legal remit of any planet or deity, but still?
eBay Privacy Policy : Disclosure : http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/privacy-poli...Further to the above,
Ebay link above said:
When transacting with another user, the other user may request and we may provide him/her with information about you necessary to complete the transaction, such as your name, account ID, email address, contact details, shipping and billing address, or other information from you needed to promote the reliability and security of the transaction. If a transaction is held, fails or is later invalidated, we may also provide the other user with details of the unsuccessful transaction.
However, I'm the innocent party here, and the other guy has stated, in writing to me via eBay and in rejecting their instruction to pay and complete the transaction, that he will not complete the purchase. Why then is he eligible, after that event, to be given my details? I don't think the above covers that?CAPP0 said:
I'm quite certain that's there, but that means that if YOU have an eBay ID and you know mine, you can ask them for my details and they'll just hand them over? I'm only glad I don't have my home address on file (because they gave me his).
In practice, they only disclose if there's a relationship between the two IDs (i.e. they are engaged in a transaction or dispute) in order to resolve problems, but that clause allows them to do pretty much whatever they choose with the data they store - except allow others to use it for marketing without your consent.Edited by marshalla on Wednesday 9th December 16:19
Bigends said:
DONT let him have your email address. Next thing you know hell try to make payment through a hijacked Paypal account
eBay very cleverly both stated my email address in the header, and also put their Privacy and User Agreement clauses in the footer, adding, you guessed, my email address.....Your phone number is not a State secret. Contrary to a widespread misunderstanding, the DPA does NOT make information private. The DPA is the most misunderstood and also one of the the most misconceived and badly drafted pieces of legislation in ever!
You might have avoided this fuss if you had taken the easy and obvious step of sending a brief message explaining why you were starting the non payment case. Not everyone knows eBay's crappy procedures off by heart.
You might have avoided this fuss if you had taken the easy and obvious step of sending a brief message explaining why you were starting the non payment case. Not everyone knows eBay's crappy procedures off by heart.
Thanks Breadvan for the clarification on the DPA. I believed, until now, that it conferred some responsibility on the holder of someone else's data to treat it with a degree of care and not to misuse it. I guess my reference to that piece of legislation was perhaps something of a sledgehammer to crack a nut; however, I don't particularly expect eBay to hand it out to any old Joe on a whim. Perhaps I'll ask them for a random selection of numbers of eBay members who post on PH and see how I get on.
Whilst you are correct that my number is not under the control of MI5, or indeed 6, it's also not especially advertised in the public domain. You, for example, don't yet have it, although it appears that the good burghers of San Jose could readily rectify that, should you feel that it may benefit you. I suppose that I could have been magnanimous enough to explain to a complete spacktard that his idiocy had the potential to cost me thirty quid, but I'm afraid that his general approach had adequately irritated me that I was all out of benevolent largesse and simply got on with the task at hand. A lesson for the future, to be sure, and guidance for which I really am jolly grateful.
CAPP0 said:
Thanks Breadvan for the clarification on the DPA. I believed, until now, that it conferred some responsibility on the holder of someone else's data to treat it with a degree of care and not to misuse it.
It requires them to process it for the purposes which they declare when they register as Data Processors and ensure that they have appropriate safeguards in place to prevent anything else happening to it. If they write a careful registration and disclose the purposes to the data subjects appropriately, they can do almost whatever they want with it.DPA isn't designed to stop anything, just to try to let data subjects know what will be done with their data before they hand it over. The problem is that most data subjects don't read the Ts & Cs before handing over the data.
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