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Big Brother is watching you - and documenting

By Yuval Dror

eBay, ever anxious to up profits, bends over backward to provide data to law enforcement officials

"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," says Joseph Sullivan. A little bit later, Sullivan explains what he means by the term "flexible." Sullivan is director of the "law enforcement and compliance" department at eBay.com, the largest retailer in the world.

Sullivan was speaking to senior representatives of numerous law-enforcement agencies in the United States on the occasion of "Cyber Crime 2003," a conference that was held last week in Connecticut. His lecture was closed to reporters, and for good reason. Haaretz has obtained a recording of the lecture, in which Sullivan tells the audience that eBay is willing to hand over everything it knows about visitors to its Web site that might be of interest to an investigator. All they have to do is ask. "There's no need for a court order," Sullivan said, and related how the company has half a dozen investigators under contract, who scrutinize "suspicious users" and "suspicious behavior." The spirit of cooperation is a function of the patriotism that has surged in the wake of September 11.

eBay is the world's largest auction site. Some 62 million registered users buy and sell a variety of merchandise through the site, which charges commissions for every item sold. Sullivan claims that 150,000 Internet users earn their livelihood from the site, some having left their old jobs to become buyers or sellers on eBay.

The sales method on the site is simple: An individual registers as a user, types in his particulars, and affirms that he accepts the user conditions and the site's privacy policy. Whenever an item is sold, the buyer fills out an evaluation form, telling other users about the treatment he received, whether the merchandise was sent on time, etc. Other eBay users can then avoid buying from sellers who have received poor grades.

Sullivan says eBay has recorded and documented every iota of data that has come through the Web site since it first went online in 1995. Every time someone makes a bid, sells an item, writes about someone else, even when the company cancels a sale for whatever reason - it documents all of the pertinent information.

One would think that preserving privacy of the users, whose moves are so meticulously recorded, would be keenly observed at eBay, whose good name in the Internet community is one of its prime assets. But in the U.S. of the post 9/11 and pre-Gulf War II era, helping the "security forces" is considered a supreme act of patriotism.

Who needs a subpoena?

"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.

Attorney Nimrod Kozlovski, author of "The Computer and the Legal Process" (in Hebrew), heard the lecture, and could not believe his ears. "The consent given in the user contract should be seen as `coerced consent,' in the absence of any opportunity to exercise free choice, with no real alternative but to agree. This is most certainly not conscious consent."

Kozlovski is part of the Information Society Project group at Yale Law School, in which he and his colleagues consider the effects of the new media on the structure of society. American law does not authorize searches of a person's home or body, he says, except in exceptional cases such as when the court authorizes a search, or when the individual gives his consent to a search.

"In the case before us, the Web site signs the user to a document that says it can do whatever it wants with his information. The eBay contract signed by the user concedes his or her rights to protection from the government; in essence, as soon as the contract is signed, eBay can invite the government to do whatever it wants with the information, he says.

A brief visit to the company's Web site reveals that the "user contract" that visitors are supposed to read before agreeing to the conditions is 4,023 words long. One paragraph makes reference to the site's "privacy policy." The user has to click on a link and is diverted to another document that is some 3,750 words long. It then takes another 2,390 words to reach the section about which Sullivan told the legal authorities: The user's privacy is solely up to eBay.

"The users are asked to read and agree to the site policy before they can make use of it," eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove told Haaretz. "We provide a link to our privacy policy on every single page of our site, and provide summaries of this policy, all so that users will be familiar with our policy."

We will work for you

Nevertheless, eBay does not make do with simply sharing its data with the legal authorities. Sullivan says the company employs six investigators, all of whom have experience in police investigations. Their job is "to track down suspicious people and suspicious behavior." To that end, they scan for patterns that are atypical - different from "normal patterns." For example, if a person sold baseball tickets for two months and suddenly switches to selling a car, the eBay system will "wave a red flag" and signal the seller as someone behaving unusually. Who asks eBay to do it? No one. eBay volunteers.

eBay goes even further. In his lecture, Sullivan spoke about how he helped investigators locate a user who had been suspected of selling stolen cars through the site. "We tried to buy the car from the thief and in that way incriminate him. But the bad guy was smart. He saw there wasn't a single feedback in the history of the person who was making the purchase. He told us he didn't want to make a deal with us."

Sullivan explained that the incident taught the company a lesson, and that since then it has used pseudo buyers for which it constructs comprehensive simulated histories, including simulated feedbacks, all for the sake of incriminating those suspected of theft. "eBay is not willing to tolerate acts of fraud carried out on its site," explains Pursglove. "We believe that one of the ways to fight fraud is to cooperate with the legal authorities at the various levels.

Sullivan is even more forthcoming. Aware of how hard the police work, he decided to help as much as possible. "Tell us what you want to ask the bad guys. We'll send them a form, signed by us, and ask them your questions. We will send their answers directly to your e-mail." Essentially, by engaging in what seems like impersonation, eBay is exploiting its relationship with customers to pass on information to law enforcement authorities. Why? "We take various steps in order to fight fraud and provide a safe buying environment for our numerous users," says Pursglove.

"In order to prevent misuse of authority, the law ensures that authorized impersonation will only be used with persons suspected of carrying out illegal activity," says Pursglove. But eBay's practice is to impersonate people on a regular basis, for law-enforcement objectives. However, "there need not be a proven connection or well-founded suspicion of a crime having been performed," claims Kozlovski.

In July 2002, eBay bought PayPal, Inc. for $1.45 billion. PayPal, which offers the most popular means of payment on eBay, provides clearing services for the execution of online transactions. It enables Internet users to open accounts on the company site, transferring money from their credit card or bank account. When carrying out a transaction, the seller receives a certificate with which money can be withdrawn from the buyer's account in cash. The system obviates the need to reveal personal financial data.

When Paypal was acquired, the company reported 16 million users, as well as 3 million business accounts and 28,000 new visitors to the site each day. About 60 percent of PayPal's income derives from commissions received from users buying goods on eBay. About 70 percent of eBay buyers use PayPal.

Two years earlier, eBay bought Half.com, a site that specializes in sales of CDs and books. Sullivan explained that these acquisitions help eBay to provide lawmen with a full picture. "Every book or CD comes with a bar code. So we know who bought what. The acquisition of PayPal helps us to locate people more precisely. In the old days, we had to trace IP addresses (unique address given to computers linked to the Internet), to locate the buyer, but now Paypal supplies us with the money trail.

PayPal has about 20 million customers, which means that we have 20 millions files on its users," Sullivan proudly relates. "If you contact me, I will hook you up with the Paypal people. They will help you get the information you're looking for," he tells his listeners. "In order to give you details about credit card transactions, I have to see a court order. I suggest that you get one, if that's what you're looking for." It isn't certain that visitors to the site are aware of the thick hints eBay gives the lawmen.

"By buying PayPal, eBay is merging the information about the goods trail with the money trail," explains Kozlovski. "Thus, in spite of the protective mechanisms of the law against disclosure of details on transactions, eBay is in a position to analyze the full set of data and `advise' investigators when it might be `worthwhile' for them to ask for a subpoena to disclose the details of a financial transaction. Essentially, this bypasses the rules on non-disclosure of details of financial transactions and the confidentiality of the banker-client relationship."

Kozlovski mentions how special investigator Kenneth Starr issued a court order that ordered the bookstore where Monica Lewinsky bought her books to report to him the names of the books she bought. "Then, there was a huge fuss. Now you don't need a special order - eBay does the work for the investigators."

Kozlovski feels that eBay's practice should be seen as part of a worrisome trend in the West to curtail protection of individual rights. In communist regimes, he says, the state would assign watchers to follow every citizen, who would pass incriminating information on to the authorities. Now the state doesn't have to do a thing. People come to it of their own free will. This is also the case for eBay, which exploits its stature in the market to have users accept contracts that strip them of their privacy. Perhaps the regime is different, but the outcome is most assuredly the same.

A million new items a day

eBay has no operations in Israel. But in the U.S., Europe and even the Far East, the name eBay is uttered in the same breath with names like Yahoo, Google and Amazon. The company created an electronic business arena where sellers offer their wares and buyers purchase them. eBay's trick is that both the sellers and the buyers are ordinary citizens. On eBay, you can find people selling used chewing gum (and there are buyers), torn soccer balls, 18th century forks, sunflower seeds and luxury cars (in 2002 alone, some 3,000 cars were sold on the site, at a total of $30 million.)

eBay is one of the few Internet companies that shows huge profits quarter after quarter. The company completed the fourth quarter of 2002 with revenues of $414 million and net profits of $87 million. The company had overall income in 2002 of $1.2 billion, and net profits of $250 million. It is traded on Nasdaq at a company value of $23.4 billion - three times that of Amazon, twice that of Yahoo and eight times that of the Israeli security behemoth, Checkpoint.

At any given moment, eBay is conducting some 12 million auctions, divided into about 18,000 different categories. About two million new items are offered for sale every day, and 62 million registered users scour the site to find them. These users have given eBay the monopoly on online auctions in America. Companies such as Yahoo and Amazon tried to get into the auction market, but were forced to give up. An estimated 150,000 people earn their livelihoods solely from buying and selling items by Internet. The company maintains local sites in Britain, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Singapore and Sweden.

eBay is a monster that churns out money 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - for itself and for its millions of users.

eBay claims that 150,000 Internet users earn their livelihood from the site, some having left their old jobs to become buyers or sellers on eBay.
(Bloomberg )

I don't see what the issue is. Don't try to scam people on ebay, and you won't have anything to worry about.

As someone who's been ripped off on Ebay, I'm glad they're not making it hard to find the guy who does it.
Sorry, but I agree, if you don't rip people off, perform mail fraud, or buy or sell anything illegal, then you have nothing to worry about, and if you do, well, sorry, but you have it coming.

Want to talk about ratting people out go talk to Jet Blue:

JetBlue Shared Passenger Data (Privacy Matters 2:00 a.m. PDT)

The airline admits it gave 5 million itineraries to a defense
contractor last year without passengers' consent. The contractor bought
more personal information on the passengers, including Social Security
numbers -- for what purpose? By Ryan Singel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The data was used without consent of the passengers to test the new CAPPS II project.

[ 09-24-2003, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: Rokenn ]

It's a measure taken by any good business. If an investigator walked into a store inquiring about a customer the store clerk would usually do all he can to help. If he refuses that makes him look suspicious and motivates investigators to force co-operation.

While the "possibility" of all the information being free for every law employee is indeed troubling it is clear why eBay employs certain strategies to catch thieves or frauds.
Like any real auction house or merchant eBay has to ensure that nobody gets hurt while using their service. If someone for example buys a stolen car and gets in trouble he's probably going to complain to/sue eBay.
This is also where the scanning of "unusual behavior" comes in. It is a well-known strategy of frauds on eBay to build up great ratings by selling cheap stuff (like tickets, books, CDs,...) and then switch to really expensive stuff (cars, laptops,...) which they cash the check for but don't deliver.
The really troubling issue is the cooperation with any law official without a court order. This carries the possibility of misuse as any officer can request information and use them for non-legal purposes/personal gain (e.g. by selling them). This also is the main reason why a court order is normally required for such investigations. Any sane and law-abiding person will cooperate with the police if an officer comes by and asks some questions explaining the nature of his investigation, but few will instantly send the information without asking after receiving a short fax signed by an officer.

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I don't see what the issue is. Don't try to scam people on ebay, and you won't have anything to worry about.

The issue is Anyone can say that they are a cop and get your info off of eBay. I could send them a fax saying I am Officer Friendly and give them a bogus badge # and they will send me all of your vital statistics. They should at lease make an attemt at verifying if an acctual officer is loking for the info or if it is just some loony.

The other issue is that if I am going to buy something I dont want the seller keeping track of it and handing a list of all of my purchaseing info over to the cops. Also , with them buying pay pal they are going to be keeping tabs on what you buy even if it isnt on eBay. How would you feel if the cops showed up at your house over someone you sent money too with pay pal?

you know thats a ridiculous proposistion, maybe your an Ebay scammer. This is just about the Ebay privacy policy. When you sign up for Ebay you will have to sign a TOSA or Terms of Service Agreement or something like this, if you don't read it, too bad.

I'm with the Hunter. As I read the article (which admittedly is at least third- or fourth-hand), there appears to be no control mechanism to ensure that you are who you say you are. I could pick someone at random, fax in a request for info claiming to be an officer of the law, and they will apparently give up everything on that person.

Can you say identity theft?

Their scheme only works if the bad guys never try to play the game. If they do, they can get everything they want.

It's a dangerous position for E-Bay to hold, assuming it's true... okay, Snopes doesn't list anything on it, and Google doesn't come up with anything contrarian.

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Originally posted by Azimaith:
you know thats a ridiculous proposistion, maybe your an Ebay scammer. This is just about the Ebay privacy policy. When you sign up for Ebay you will have to sign a TOSA or Terms of Service Agreement or something like this, if you don't read it, too bad.

It's not ridicullous. If you were paying attention to the arcticle, they said ebay bought/is buying half.com and paypal.

They said they are keeping tab of every transactions, comments, and bid you make. They can know everything you bought from ebay half.com or paypal. They also have assess to all your personal information, including your bank account and credit card number, your adress, and your phone number, among other things.

They know everything you might have bought using these services. Be it cards, books, music ,pornography or goods. They have all the info on you. By looking at your purchasing habbit they can learn a lot, from your political and religious position to your sexual preference. Did you buy a book on communism from a class research project? Congratulation, you might be on some list right now. You better watch out what music you buy, too.

What's worse is that they are giving this info away freely to anyone who ask. Do you really think all cops are honest?

I know a guy who played Asheron's Call (a mmorpg) on a non-pk server. One day a cop stoped his car for a broken light. The guy was wearing an Asheron's Call t-shirt, and the cop played, too, so they started talking. The guy said he played on a non-pk server. Well... guess what. The cop was a pker, so he arested the guy for speeding, resisting arrestation, and other things like that, just because he didn'tlike non-pk. The truth was found out and the cop was suspended, but think of all the harm he did for no reason.

There are a lot of people like that. All your personal information can be used for lots of things, including fraud.

It is disturbing, but then I have never clicked on e-bay and never will [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Then I remember I have payed Z using pay pal and now I am very disturbed :mad:

I would prefer eBay to require a court order simply to prevent the possibility of fraud and identity theft. I can appreciate the fact that they want to protect themselves and want to have a friendly relationship with authorities, but I don't think they've considered the fact that anybody could send them a name and badge# and request information on a user.

As for the info itself being divulged to proper authorities, I don't have a problem with that. After all, my address and personal data could be found through a simple inquiry to the local Post Office. Likewise, I have no doubt that my ISP would provide local, state, or federal authorities with any info regarding my email account and internet browsing activities if they were asked to do so. If they refused to cooperate, that would make them appear suspicious.

With so many users, there is no doubt that at least a portion of the eBay members ARE committing fraud, scams, or selling stolen goods. What better way to get rid of some stolen electronics quickly and for a decent price to boot? EBay could conceivably be liable as an accessory if they didn't report such information upon request. Still, they need to think about that same liability problem if somebody impersonates an officer and then uses the information received to commit identity theft.

What annoy me is the the sheer number of information they an get on you. They can have much more info than even your isp could find.

Think about how much person use paypal. How would you feel if your credit card company was keeping tab of everything you bought, and not just the price, but all the info on the item, and was willing to give to anyone that asked, along with your social security number, your job info, adress, phone, number, and anything they can think of.

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Originally posted by Firestormalpha:
I don't see what the issue is. Don't try to scam people on ebay, and you won't have anything to worry about.

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Originally posted by harleyquinn:
As someone who's been ripped off on Ebay, I'm glad they're not making it hard to find the guy who does it.
Sorry, but I agree, if you don't rip people off, perform mail fraud, or buy or sell anything illegal, then you have nothing to worry about, and if you do, well, sorry, but you have it coming.

Ditto. Ditto. And ditto.

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Originally posted by Dreamer128:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Firestormalpha:
I don't see what the issue is. Don't try to scam people on ebay, and you won't have anything to worry about.

"that eBay is willing to hand over everything it knows about visitors to its Web site that might be of interest to an investigator."
Doesn't handing your personal information over to... investors.. mean Spam? Or are they talking about the government here? [/QUOTE]
Official investigators. They arent allowed to hand out personal info because of your rights.

I've been riped off at eBay badly once. I am glad that eBay takes what it does seriously.

originaly by: Azimaith

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So now I am a thief, is that it. Did you even bother to read the article? Why dont you give it another try. I have broken it down into a small section so you shouldnt have such a hard time comprehending what is going on this time around.

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Sullivan says eBay has recorded and documented every iota of data that has come through the Web site since it first went online in 1995. Every time someone makes a bid, sells an item, writes about someone else, even when the company cancels a sale for whatever reason - it documents all of the pertinent information.

This means that they keep better track of your spending habits than you probably do. While some of us may forget what we bought back in the 90's ,but eBay will always remember.

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One would think that preserving privacy of the users, whose moves are so meticulously recorded, would be keenly observed at eBay, whose good name in the Internet community is one of its prime assets. But in the U.S. of the post 9/11 and pre-Gulf War II era, helping the "security forces" is considered a supreme act of patriotism.

Basicaly eBay is going to be they eyes and ears for law enforcement and pick up whatever they cant. Better check your local laws befor you order of of eBay or you could find Johnny Law on your front porch asking you about your new sword cane/"adult" vid/"chemistry book"/electronics component/vintage High times collection.

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Who needs a subpoena?

I dunno , maybe cops who follow the rules?

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"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 themunofficial requests in the form of an email or fax.

It is good to see that eBay is looking out for your safety. Its not like John Wayne Gacey pretended to be a cop to find out info on people. Oh wait, thats exactly what he did along with a few other serial killers.

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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.

The meaning is clear,eBay doesnt care who finds out about you , just so long as the law doesnt look to closely at them. I wonder what deep dark secret they are hideing by giving all of us up as sacraficial lambs.

[ 09-25-2003, 04:35 PM: Message edited by: The Hunter of Jahanna ]