E-Bay Buyers ID In Feedback Not Masked For Other Members?

[return_2_sender]

Hello, today I randomly was checking out some items from some of my saved sellers and noticed that when I clicked on their feedback I was able to see what the buyers full unmasked id's were. I mean instead of showing up as A****B(123) it would show up as Bidders_Name123(123)  or whatever their actual E-Bay id was.

Then I checked some other feedback from random people and would notice that some would be uncovered and others would look like they originally did with A****B(123)

Is there a new update that I didn't know about where they changed this? Or is there a way to make it so my buyers ID's are hidden that I don't know about? 

Thank you for any help you can offer!

[dutchman48]

I would ask this on the weekly chat because if it a glitch, it is a serious one.

[ricarmic]

Just asking incase, it does say "Buyer" beside biddersname(123) it and not "Seller" beside biddersname(123) right.... "seller stuff" shows the seller id but not the item number, buyer stuff shows item number but not buyer id.....

[return_2_sender]

It was with both, but I just checked again right now and it is only showing up like normal with only the seller information. 
example:

Before it was
Buyer: Biddername(123)
seller:Biddername(12345)

Now it's correct 

Buyer: B***1(123)
seller: Biddername(12345)

It was quite weird... but it appears all is correct now 

[ricarmic]

Hmm just another glitch. It seems one can't really count on anything being the way it is supposed to be anymore!!!!

Yesterday, when I clicked on "My ebay" I went into Selling Manager Pro (which I've never done before). It turned out ok because I discovered Selling Manager was easier than I expected (I will use it to look up phone numbers going forward for customs forms). But that too was a glitch.....took me a while to figure out who to get into it the correct way afterward but got that figured out too....

[reallynicestamps]

The reason buyer names are masked is because eBay was reacting to complaints of fraudulent Second Chance Offers being sent to underbidders on auctions.

This was long enough ago that most listings were for auctions. That's no longer true.

But an unintended consequence was blocking useful information about bad buyers (who leave mostly negative feedback for example or who retract many bids) and making it harder to spot shill bidding.

And also making new bidders nervous because they appear to be the only bidders with 'real' names.

In my opinion, the consequences are worse than the original problem and I would like to see buyers' names unmasked again.