Ebay Feature Request - Share items to userid

[wkndshop]

On every listing page there is an option about the top right corner to share the item via Emai, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Wouldn't it be great if we could share items via Ebay UserIDs?

Instead of entering an email address, just enter the user id.

This feature seems long overdue and please forgive me if it is somehow already available.

For example :

I had a buyer send me a message about an item using Ebays message service.

I copied and pasted a link to an item that i thought would interest the buyer.

When i looked at the sent message , the link is there but it is not active, the buyer will have to copy and paste the link into her browser in order to view the item. This is an extra step in my opinion that some buyers may have trouble with. Not every one is tech savvy.

All of this could be solved with a share button Ebay users.

BTW you're welcome Ebay for this great tip, i would like a half a cent for everyone that uses this once it is implemented, please send the monthly cheque to my home address, thanks

[momcqueen]

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@rose-dee wrote:

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

Please cite your source. If Pierre did discus it here, you should be able to find it for us. Or reach out to him to invite him back to comment on this thread. I'm certain he'd love to hear from you again. 

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Oh I don't think I have to "cite my source".  I'm fairly sure others who have been around here for a few years will remember him discussing his customer email list.  If you have time you can try slogging through the last 3 or 4 years of board discussions to find some entries on this subject by him.  I'm not going to pester Pierre about this, nor ask him to get embroiled in interpreting the law.  

Let's just be patient and wait a few days please.  We'll have some better information soon enough. 

Regular Discussion Board users already know the user agreement states spam is prohibited. Citing sources is for the benefit of innocents who may stumble on this thread later and be led astray. The Discussion Board search function allows a filter by user, it should be easy enough to do. 

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

By extension of the user agreement, they certainly can. As does paypal, I am certain. These aren't our customers. Buyers are giving their data to the sites we serve, not us. Ebay and Paypal share it with sellers on the condition that sellers don't abuse it. Spam is abuse of those terms. 

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Again, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you (on both points).  Commercial agreements dealing with site usage don't operate by extension.  They can only legally apply to activities on the specific site, which I think eBay recognizes in its user agreement and policies.  

The only exception I can think of would be, for instance, an employee of eBay who signs a non-disclosure or other agreement restricting his or her activity outside eBay.  Even so, the law does not like perpetuity or vagueness, and eBay's lawyers will be well aware of that fact -- those agreements contain limiting clauses, either by time or region.  In any case, they don't apply to us as subscribers or users.  

Here for example is eBay's member-to-member contact policy.  Note the bold text (my emphasis): 

"Members can send messages to each other through eBay. We encourage open communication between our members but we don't allow our members to use these options to send spam, offers to buy or sell off eBay, threats, profanity, or hate speech. We also don't allow members to exchange email addresses, phone numbers or other contact information, web addresses, or links within eBay messaging systems (Best Offer, My Messages etc.). eBay may monitor messages sent through eBay and between users for fraud, abuse, spam, and other violations of eBay's policies. 

Make sure you follow these guidelines. If you don't, you may be subject to a range of actions, including your messages being blocked, limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

Please remember that we don't have control over communication unless it takes place through eBay. Also, posts on eBay discussion boards aren't covered by this policy. However, we do have a discussion boards usage policy."

[rose-dee]

The eBay User Agreement, under "Using eBay" sets out the various prohibitions, but these are prefaced by the following:

"In connection with using or accessing eBay sites, Services, applications and tools, you will not: [...]"

and one of the prohibitions of course is: 

• "distribute or post spam, unsolicited or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;"

The preamble is important, since it recognizes that eBay only has legal control over what actually occurs on its own site.  To assume otherwise is to say that any corporation, if it wished, could control outside communications simply because their users "met" on their site, which would create a legal absurdity.  It would produce a world of privately-driven and cross-purposed tangles of laws.  Laws (and legal agreements) do require jurisdiction and circumscription in order to be sensible and meaningful.  

Here, for reference for anyone who is following this discussion, are the links to the eBay member-to-member contact policy page, and to the User Agreement (.ca): 

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/rfe-spam-ov.html  (see under "Spam")

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/user-agreement.html

[momcqueen]

You can argue with me until Wednesday if you like. Raphael will settle this.

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
You can argue with me until Wednesday if you like. Raphael will settle this.

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Raphael should really not be asked to interpret or comment on the laws of Canada.  It would be not only difficult, but wrong of him to attempt to do so, and wrong of us to take his opinion as the final word where laws outside the immediate purview of eBay rules are concerned.  

Hopefully I will have a response from the government by then which will relieve him of being put in such an untenable position. 

[momcqueen]

This has NOTHING to do with the laws of Canada and everything to do with eBay policy and procedures.

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
This has NOTHING to do with the laws of Canada and everything to do with eBay policy and procedures.

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As soon as a communication takes place completely outside the purview of eBay's site(s), i.e. between two private email addresses that are unconnected to eBay, the laws of the nation (or province) apply.  EBay has no control or authority then, even if it originally provided the buyer's email address to the seller.  

I refer again to eBay's own acknowledgement of this fact at the bottom of Post #42.  Which is not to say sellers don't need to exercise great care in using the "implied consent" that our laws provide for when contacting a buyer outside of eBay.  

If this weren't so, every corporation operating in Canada could restrict people who happened to transact business under their umbrella from ever contacting each other on the outside.  Aside from employee non-disclosure agreements (which must be made under the laws of the jurisdiction in which a corporation operates, not under the corporation's own rules or regulations), this is a legal, not to mention practical, impossibility.   

Legislatures enact laws, eBay can only create rules and policies for its site(s) that have no effect or authority beyond those sites.  Once beyond, the laws of the land pertain.  This is even more important where a foreign corporation like eBay is involved. 

[momcqueen]

You can continue to belabour this but I'm not buying it. The policy is clear: spam is prohibited by sellers who aren't allowed to be stealing ebay buyer's email addresses for their own outside-ebay purposes. That data isn't ours to use. Raphael will set this straight. 

So long! I'll talk to you again next week. 

[rose-dee]

No need to shout.  

I thought we were having a very interesting and substantial discussion.  Silly me. 

[i.am.vivian]

I would really like to hear all the official thoughts about this topic.  EBay's official position, and the legal governmental legislation info on it, and if there will ever be improved laws regarding selling email addresses and spam.   I doubt there will ever be much real legislation about it since it would be too hard to enforce, I would think.  It would  have to be something international, and where someone was going to lose a lot of money.  There are international laws about pirating copyright but that's different, isn't it. 

What bugs me most is we can't really be sure who sold the address.  Used to be when we had mail order and if we order from someplace like that 'record house' and if we put an oddity in our name with them like "Viv & Hank LastName" that we don't use anywhere else, when we start getting all sorts of junk mail for "Viv & Hank" we know who did it.  Then when we order from the seed catalogue and use 'Vivvy LastName" only with them, we again know who sold our address when loads of unwanted junk comes in shortly after for "Vivvy". 

That doesn't work with email addresses.  Real names are easy to guess, but odd ones like if we put "viv-viv-ha-ha@...", No place would ever guess something obscure like that but they are getting it from somewhere and we have no way to know whose doing the address selling.  And no, that is definitely NOT my email address.  lol! 

I think I might be getting off topic. 

[maggiebvintage2010]

Very easy to find one of the posts you were referring to:

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/eBay-Stores/Report-seller-who-sends-me-email-flyers-for-his-storefront/m...

Re: Report seller who sends me email flyers for his storefront OUTSIDE of ebay!!??
[ Edited ]

"- he has put me on his personal email list for his store outside of ebay."
 
I understood that.
 
Prior to my retirement I did the same thing with nearly 9,000 eBay buyers over the years.  Business generated by that list helped me build an online business yielding slightly more than eBay.
 
Over the years a few recipients asked to be removed from the list.  I did.
 
On the other hand as a former buyer I also receive lots of emails from businesses still trying to sell me their products and/or services.  If I am not interested, I use the "Delete" button.
 
"I'm certain I read a policy somewhere about selling practices and offering to sell outside of ebay???"
 
No such policy.  Once a seller has completed a transaction with a buyer on eBay and paid his fees, the contact name and address belong to the seller, not eBay.  Policies on eBay prevent sellers from contacting eBay users to offer them goods listed on eBay for transaction outside eBay.  However, that is not the situation here.

[momcqueen]

Again, I respectfully disagree but my opinion, like yours and others on the topic, is mostly meaningless. ebay Canada will issue its ruling on this on Wednesday at Board Hour. If I'm incorrect in all my assertions, I'll admit that and come back to the thread to say so. 

[recped]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

Again, I respectfully disagree but my opinion, like yours and others on the topic, is mostly meaningless. ebay Canada will issue its ruling on this on Wednesday at Board Hour. If I'm incorrect in all my assertions, I'll admit that and come back to the thread to say so. 

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Presumably you are joking!

[cumos55]

As sellers we get all kinds of information about our sellers.

We are guided by the Privacy Act with respect to what we can do with that information, beyond an eBay transaction

Based on eBay rules  we can only use that information for that one transaction, unless the buyer states  they are willing to let us communicate with that buyer.

This buyer's information will always be linked to eBay  and as such  we must follow eBay rules in using that information.

I have never used that information  for anything other the transaction with the buyer....

If someone asks a question, that person gets an answer and nothing more.

A buyer's information is privileged information  and is protected by eBay's rules first and by Canada's  Privacy Act second. 

Once a transaction is completed on eBay  a buyer's information is privileged and must be destroyed

and that is unless  a buyer goes on an eBay mailing list,  and even then  that person's actual email address is not shown through communication through eBay.....

The email address is protected by eBay for any communication after a transaction..

[cumos55]

In today's world of the internet we must be always be careful  with our own as well as other people's information.

Someone is always watching.....  all one has to do is run a cleanup on a computer linked to the internet.  The computer will be cleaned,,, but....  that hidden tool will be back.  It is amazing how much "junk"  will be found on a computer linked to the internet.

and one does not have to use that computer for email communication

Nothing is sacred on the internet.....  People are always looking and picking up information..

and then there are those that will go phishing for personal information using that information retrieved.

All one has to do is start with a name.... and where a person lives  and one can find out where they live... and then more information..... lots more information...

I have done many such searches mainly to confirm addresses.....  Some addresses can look very strange.....

On the internet one can find out credit scores,   criminal records....and lots more....

Seniors are one group that have  very little safety...  A part of any search for a person on the internet is finding out who lives at a specific address, with the age of all people noted. 

Emails are not protected through encryption of information....and the right search tool can let someone find out everything about someone that communicates on the internet.

It is more important now than ever before  as hacker's  are getting better at what they want to do.....They will always find that open back door if we are not careful.

My latest experience with phishing has to do with my banking accounts...... and then they go through a bank where I have no accounts...

[maggiebvintage2010]

I did not express an opinion, I quoted a board discussion topic to which Pierre Lebel replied (with replies by others), which was referred to by both rose-dee and yourself in several posts on this thread.  You asked for a source, and I provided one - there are several more.

It will be interesting to see if eBay's reply is the same as the reply from OCA, should they both eventually be provided. 

[momcqueen]

Thank you for citing the source thread that rose-dee was referring to earlier tin this thread.

It was not clear to me in your post reply that you were quoting from a response on that thread. I thought you were offering your own opinion when you wrote: "Once a seller has completed a transaction with a buyer on eBay and paid his fees, the contact name and address belong to the seller, not eBay." I realize only now that you were quoting PierreL. I misunderstood. Thank you for pointing this out, I was wrong and I am sorry for thinking you were the source of this misinformation. Please accept my apologies.

That post is dated 2013. If I had seen it then, I would have alerted the contributors to it that this practise is, in fact, against ebay policy, as I am certain ebay Canada will confirm once I have taken it to Board Hour on Wednesday. If I am incorrect, I will freely admit such. 

If every seller with whom I had bought through ebay had added me without my permission to their own unsolicited newsletters over the years, I'd be on the list for hundreds of spam emails from people with whom I had no direct contact with and from whom I'd never buy again. I'd have cried foul years ago. I'd have complained to ebay, and I'd have complained to paypal. Those are the corporate entities with whom I shared my personal information, and if my email address landed in the hands of someone who decided to send me spam, I would hold ebay and paypal accountable for failing to keep it safe.

It takes only common sense, in my opinion, to see that no individual seller has any right to any buyer's ebay data. If I want newsletters from an ebay seller, I sign up for their newsletter on ebay, or follow them or one of their collections. ebay makes it easy to do that. There is no excuse for a seller to think any buyer wants their spam outside ebay.

[momcqueen]

For the record, I am also taking this question to paypal. 

I'll report back as soon as I have a reply. Let there be no doubt when this is over. 

[momcqueen]

Here is the reply: https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full#rScope_and_Consent

Please note that merchants, sellers, and users you buy from or contract with have their own privacy policies, and although PayPal’s user agreement does not allow the other transacting party to use this information for anything other than providing PayPal Services, PayPal is not responsible for their actions, including their information protection practices.

In other words, the email a buyer provides to paypal which is viewable by your ebay seller is to be used for that transaction only. 

[i.am.vivian]

Its really amazing of you to put in so much time on this because the issue affects everyone and I am sure lots of people besides me are really fed up with the spam of the world but have pretty much resolved we'll never be able to do anything about it.  The one I can't stand is facebook and its several messages a day with "You have more friends than you think" and I don't have an account at all and have no idea where they got the email address except that they buy & sell them.  But enough of that.  🙂 

When I see

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full#rHow_We_Share_Personal_Information_with_Other_...

Please note that merchants, sellers, and users you buy from or contract with have their own privacy policies, and although PayPal’s user agreement does not allow the other transacting party to use this information for anything other than providing PayPal Services, PayPal is not responsible for their actions, including their information protection practices.

I think, "in other words you frown on it but there's nothing you can do. NYP, Not Your Problem".  That's how it reads to me. 

Especially when this is on the same page,

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full#rMarketing

We may combine your personal information with information we collect from other companies and use it to improve and personalize PayPal Services, content, and advertising. If you do not wish to receive marketing communications from us or participate in our ad-customization programs, simply indicate your preference by logging into your account and going to the Notifications section  and updating your preferences, or by following the directions that may be provided within the communication or advertisement.

Too many places presume "consent" to be given unless the user specifically revokes it.  If you don't find and use the "unsubscribe" link in the spam then that's your too bad.  That's how this sounds.  It sounds like a gobbledyspeak way around excusing a lot of spam ads that will be the inevitable result of them sharing customer information with "merchants", whoever and wherever those so-called merchants may be. Could be I am just too cynical.