Grand. If this article in an Israeli paper is true, Ebay is really excited about giving government investigators of all flavours access to all the details of their users behaviour that they are privy to. The source is claimed to be a talk Ebay law enforcement liason cheif Joseph Sullivan gave at the “Cyber Crime 2003” conference. If he really did say what they are reporting, they are practically pushing all of the information in their user databases at law enforcement, and they aren’t too concerned with due process. At all. And it’s probably suprising just how many details they can patch together about a user’s behaviour. Ever bought something on Ebay?

“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.”