eBay

dutchman48 · ‎09-08-2017

Any one else get this email and how long does it take for i-ways to run?

Starting in October 2017, Google Chrome—the browser used by almost half of all eBay buyers—will begin displaying the message "Not Secure" in the address bar when users visit standard HTTP pages or HTTPS pages that include non-secure HTTP content.

You have listings that contain non-secure HTTP content, and we encourage you to revise this content in your listings immediately. If you're not sure which of your listings contain HTTP content, you can use the i-ways tool to identify them. We have partnered with i-ways to implement an eBay sign-in that protects your full inventory from being available publicly.

What is eBay doing to help?
We believe that the "Not Secure" message may deter buyers from purchasing and impact your conversion rate. To prevent the "Not Secure" message from appearing, we're changing the desktop buying experience starting this October. Listings that contain or link to HTTP content after that time will have one-click item descriptions—a snippet of the description will be visible, and buyers will have to click to see the full description. The mobile experience will remain unchanged.

If you prefer for the full item description to display in your listings, we recommend that you update your HTTP content before October.

Updating listings with HTTP content
Please reference the HTTP page within Seller Center for detailed guidance on how to update your listings.

cumos55 · ‎09-11-2017

I had checked my images on Auctiva...

It appears that all images are https. This is something easy for Auctiva to do....convert http to https

I end my listing on eBay, and then go and revise the original listing on Auctiva.. Revising images on Auctiva updates the images in a listing to https. Revised listings are then uploaded to eBay

The images are corrected... However, as I have already mentioned Auctiva has something called a footer

These are Auctiva advertisements at the lower end of a listing. They can vary among listings. with or without https and old listings versus new listings is my guess.

It appears that once the non-compliant listings are found at the end of my revision in relation to images, ... the editing for footer content ... converting http to https ... will have to be done for each listing....... add an ...s... or two ... and maybe three .

sledsandatvs · ‎09-12-2017

I also received the email (supposedly from ebay). After reading this post, I created an account with i-ways and checked my listings and it would appear that almost all my listings are non-compliant. At least that what I think----it's a bit difficult to understand as there's green check marks on all my listings but the check marks seem to appear to mean the listings do contain http?

After doing this, I went to my ebay page and checked my "messages". There is no such message there from ebay. And I seen no announcements from ebay indicating this change? Also, it ocurred to me that ebay usually gives at least a couple months notice when implementing such changes. Another thing that seems suspicious to me is that the email only mentions October and does not provide a specific date.

I really hope I am wrong about this because i-ways already has all my information. Is this some sort of a scam?

As a precaution, I have already changed my passwords for both me ebay and my paypal account and have withdrawn almost all my paypal balance and moved it to my bank account.

Am I over-reacting? I hope so but I am very concerned that I may have been conned.

sledsandatvs · ‎09-12-2017

I just talked to with someone named Mark at ebay. He asked me to forward the email to spoof@ebay.com which I did. Mark stated he had heard nothing about this message and he feels it likely is a scam email. They are supposed to check into it and get back to me.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-12-2017

Some of my listings that were compliant were old, some were newwer but it doesn't really matter to me what the problem is, just that it is fixed and mine seem to be...at least for now.

I don't understand why you are ending your listings. Why don't you just use the bulk edit on auctiva using the find and edit function?

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-12-2017

The green check mark means that the listing is https compliant so those listings are fine.

There is an announcement about this on the US boards.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Stronger-Browser-Security-Standards-Ahead/ba-p/27389922

cumos55 · ‎09-12-2017

My old listings were prepared with Turbolister.... and after August 2014 it was Auctiva.

I was not using the Gallery View for all of my photos in Auctiva listings... only one Gallery photo and then the rest in the description.

The new link policy made me rethink things,and it was decided to have all of my photos in Gallery View... and now also within the description.. I was not too sure if Auctiva's change to viewing photos would work well... Auctiva's new way of viewing photos in the description is OK.... but Gallery View is better

My approach to editing started with the Gallery View photos.... and then the http to https adjustment

This also gave me time to view my listings and make corrections where necessary.... and there were some adjustments.

When I am finished I will be most confident with Auctiva..... and How it can be used. My listings will be readily viewed by potential buyers.

and I did find an old Turbolister listing with an http in the description.

There is also a possibility that after all revisions with respect to Gallery View and with respect to http/https that a listing may not be classified as browser secure... These listings could be interesting.

rose-dee · ‎09-12-2017

@sledsandatvs wrote:
I just talked to with someone named Mark at ebay. He asked me to forward the email to spoof@ebay.com which I did. Mark stated he had heard nothing about this message and he feels it likely is a scam email. They are supposed to check into it and get back to me.

Good on you for thinking of this possibility and checking with eBay. Please come back and let us all know if we've all been taken in or not. If so, it could be one of the most serious intrusions yet, as we've now all given I-ways (or whatever that site may actually be) direct access to our eBay accounts and listings. I think I'll wait a few days before I change anything else.

I have to admit I also found it odd that no specific compliance date was stated in the warning email -- usually eBay is pretty good about giving sellers a firm deadline.

The other odd thing is that Auctiva is usually well on top of these kinds of policy changes weeks, if not months in advance, and usually puts out announcements for all its users. I've had no heads-up from Auctiva yet, and October is getting rather close.

The other puzzling point for me is that when buyers log onto eBay, they are logged onto a site that has https: security. So does Auctiva, for quite some time now. I'd conclude that any pictures or descriptions uploaded to either site and viewed on eBay should be https compliant. Besides, once a buyer is actually on eBay, viewing the listing descriptions and the photos on eBay has nothing to do with Google searches. So why should it seriously impact us?

Perhaps 'como' can answer this, which caused me some concern as well: When I ran the I-ways checker yesterday, and replaced the http: with https: in the listings they showed as non-compliant, then ran the checker again to confirm, some of the previously compliant listings (green check-mark) had suddenly changed to non-compliant (red X-mark). I found that very odd.

Something else I wondered about -- I noticed when I reloaded the I-ways checker screen, a whole bunch of unrelated code and text popped up first, before the page fully loaded. There wasn't time to actually read it, but honestly, would eBay be partnering with a half-baked, poorly designed site? Oh yes, and it says they're based in Berlin (Germany)? What??

The more I think about this, the more head-scratching I'm doing, and the more fish I'm smelling. I really hope I'm completely wrong!

rose-dee · ‎09-12-2017

One other unusual point -- today I received a second, identical email, purportedly from eBay, with the I-ways link. I can't recall getting duplicate emails about policy from eBay in my seller inbox before.

You might know the answer to this 'poco', which is another thing I found a bit puzzling when I first read it. Here's the first paragraph of the email in question:

"Starting in October 2017, Google Chrome—the browser used by almost half of all eBay buyers—will begin displaying the message "Not Secure" in the address bar when users visit standard HTTP pages or HTTPS pages that include non-secure HTTP content."

Now if my memory isn't totally gone, I seem to recall that this changeover (Google displaying "not secure" for non-https pages) happened quite a while ago, months if not a year or so. I remember all the worry and upset at the time that these messages were appearing on eBay URL lines, and then eBay changed to https and everyone was happy again. Or am I going loopy?

dutchman48 · ‎09-12-2017

From my Ebay messages:

Dear dutchman48,

Starting in October 2017, Google Chrome—the browser used by almost half of all eBay buyers—will begin displaying the message "Not Secure" in the address bar when users visit standard HTTP pages or HTTPS pages that include non-secure HTTP content.

You have listings that contain non-secure HTTP content, and we encourage you to revise this content in your listings immediately. If you're not sure which of your listings contain HTTP content, you can use the i-ways tool to identify them. We have partnered with i-ways to implement an eBay sign-in that protects your full inventory from being available publicly.

What is eBay doing to help?
We believe that the "Not Secure" message may deter buyers from purchasing and impact your conversion rate. To prevent the "Not Secure" message from appearing, we're changing the desktop buying experience starting this October. Listings that contain or link to HTTP content after that time will have one-click item descriptions—a snippet of the description will be visible, and buyers will have to click to see the full description. The mobile experience will remain unchanged.

If you prefer for the full item description to display in your listings, we recommend that you update your HTTP content before October.

Updating listings with HTTP content
Please reference the HTTP page within Seller Center for detailed guidance on how to update your listings.

Additionally, eBay has been working with third-party providers to ensure they're ready for this change. Many of them will provide bulk editing options to revise the HTTP content in your listings. See a list of providers here.

For more information about the specifics of this Google Chrome change, follow this link.

As always, thank you for selling on eBay.

The eBay Selling Team

rose-dee · ‎09-12-2017

Here's the link to the eBay Seller information page, which does appear to be legitimate. I think I'm going to wait to hear what the eBay rep tells the earlier poster before I do anything more.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing/browser-security-standards.html

rose-dee · ‎09-12-2017

This is clearly an issue that will get sellers' notice very quickly, especially this part:

"We believe that the "Not Secure" message may deter buyers from purchasing and impact your conversion rate. To prevent the "Not Secure" message from appearing, we're changing the desktop buying experience starting this October. Listings that contain or link to HTTP content after that time will have one-click item descriptions—a snippet of the description will be visible, and buyers will have to click to see the full description. The mobile experience will remain unchanged."

If it does turn out to be some sort of diabolical intrusion, you have to admit it's brilliantly executed, because we've all eagerly clicked on that I-ways link. If not, it's more of the usual eBay drudgery for us, just ahead of the Fall Seller Update (which will doubtless involve more drudgery).

dutchman48 · ‎09-12-2017

Ebay just continues to hit the little guys with more and more unprofitable and time consuming work in the hopes we will go away.

I will just plod through my stuff and see what happens with their constant new rules and changes.

Sales can't be a whole lot worse than they have been in the last umteen months so I really don't think all this makes much difference.

If mobile is not affected, we should be OK over 50% of the time.

rose-dee · ‎09-12-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:

Sales can't be a whole lot worse than they have been in the last umteen months so I really don't think all this makes much difference.

If mobile is not affected, we should be OK over 50% of the time.

Yes, it hardly seems worth the time spent constantly tweaking and fixing listings when sales are so slow. When this place was humming, it paid off to be 100% compliant, 100% of the time. Now I think I'd rather spend those hours more profitably.

I wondered why mobile wouldn't be affected. That level of technical understanding is beyond my ken, but maybe someone else knows the reason. In any case I agree -- if mobile won't change, it's not as big an issue as it might seem.

The Paypal stats I've been getting recently indicate that over 70% of my sales are now mobile-based, so you know what -- I'm going to get back to my real work today! (Although as a precaution, I did just change my eBay password. Better safe than sorry).

sledsandatvs · ‎09-12-2017

I received a reply from ebay today stating that the email message is a legitimate email from ebay. I have no idea why the message does not appear in "my messages" or in the announcements?

So now, I have to figure out this whole pile of **bleep** and see if it's actually worth my time to update my listings or just close my ebay account.

How much time would it take to update 600 listing? I still can't find any link to the bulk updater that was mentioned.

jt-libra · ‎09-12-2017

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
The green check mark means that the listing is https compliant so those listings are fine.

There is an announcement about this on the US boards.
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Stronger-Browser-Security-Standards-Ahead/ba-p/27389922

Thanks for the link, pj. One important sentence I read:

eBay will email sellers who have listings that contain HTTP, starting August 28th. If you do not get an email from eBay on this topic, no action is needed.

Before I saw your post, I had run my listings through the checker and found that mine were okay. But the link you posted explains why many of us didn't get an e-mail.

hlmacdon · ‎09-12-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

I wondered why mobile wouldn't be affected.

Mobile descriptions are already neutered by ebay and displayed as a stripped out, randomly chosen jumble of words.

cumos55 · ‎09-12-2017

Making an edit on Auctiva.

Just did the edit on one listing..

http was converted to https

However ..... https was converted to httpss

I had to do a second edit on the same listing to convert httpss to https

on Auctiva it will be 250 listings with each bulk edit..... should be very quick.....

and then run the I-Ways scanner to see what is still non-compliant

New listings can be edited as soon as they are uploaded to eBay to prevent any security non-compliance,..... if necessary .... very quick.. very easy... and .....no listings that are not https listings

cumos55 · ‎09-12-2017

Using Auctiva

Even after all of the http have been converted to https....in the description ... using the Auctiva Bulk edit option

There could still be a problem.

The address of the photo in Gallery View contains http.

The only way to change the address of the gallery photo is to go back to Auctiva and upload a new revised listing

that has a photo with https.....

Once new listings are uploaded to eBay .. It may be necessary to do a bulk edit in the description to convert http to https... if necessary.... must check....

musicyouneed · ‎09-13-2017

I don't use Activa. Ebay hosts my pictures and I cannot figure out why this one is non compliant. Any ideas? If I figure this one out it might explain why the others are non compliant. What is this:

"http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"