Ebay to acquire Skype

[accentnepal]

eBay hopes to monetize the user based by selling their account details to junk callers, at $2 to $12 per lead.

Talk about running a business into the ground.....
Bet they call them to tell of the wonders of selling on Ebay, too. 

Come to think of it they have my phone number (which is unlisted) and I have been getting junk calls lately. Been wondering why.

Thanks Meg.
  B!+CH

[bargainbloodhound]

eBay hopes to monetize the user based by selling their account details to junk callers, at $2 to $12 per lead.

eBay (Corporate) Community Values at work :

[mandy]

about Whitman's Skype acquisition:

Her idea to “monetize” Skype by using them as telephonic spam sounds positively insane, not to mention illegal and detrimental to the internet in general, so I like her chances less and less.

and this about ebay buyers and sellers:

Problem is, their best customers, you know the ones that are always online bargaining, selling and buying claiming this is their “new business” seem like such sad little people devoid of a life.

and more about the planned  selling of customer information:

Let me see if I understand this, their new devious strategy is to sell their customer information to all manner of crass midnight and bedroom operators at $2 to $12 per lead,...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/19/...y_comment/

[mandy]

Well, it seems that there are three kinds of companies: those that fight for customers' privacy in the face of the demands of law enforcement; those that require some sort of official, constitutionally-mandated documents - like, oh, say, a warrant or subpoena - before handing over customer info to the cops; and eBay.

So what do we have? Software that says it's completely secure, but without a good way to verify that claim, now owned by a company that will basically give up an astonishing amount of personal information about you at the slightest peep from the authorities. This looks and smells bad

http://www.theregister.com/2005/09/23/skype/

[xppman]

And we all thought it was the government who was going to keep tabs on us in this new world
Or sell out our information. (Hey some states actually do that in the us)…

Of course ebay states:
Your privacy is very important to us. We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

Then way down in the FINE PRINT they state:

We aggregate (gather up data across all user accounts) personal information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes. However, in these situations, we do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally. Certain information, such as your name, email address, password, credit card number, and bank account number, are not disclosed to these third parties in a personally identifiable manner without your explicit consent.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/priv...ame=f:f:US

I was in a heated discussion over this several months ago at another forum.

I had created and second e mail address via my ISP to use at feebay’s forums.
(Only got to use it one night and it was pink slapped into suspension) LOL.
Anyway there are only THREE intities that have that e mail address and that I know for a fact.
eBay had it, my ISP had it and I had it.

I get more spam on that account (mostly phishing pp or ebay emails) than all my other e mail accounts combined.

Hmm wonder who ebay sold this email address to? Was my thinking and stance.
Now with Skype,  I’m so sure the users are going to love getting all that unsolicited junk voice commo.

NOT.

And don’t get me started on the constitutionality of ebay giving personal info to law enforcement and government with-out say a warrant or Subpena.

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=xppman link=topic=369.msg1959#msg1959 date=1127571947]

I had created and second e mail address via my ISP to use at feebay’s forums.
(Only got to use it one night and it was pink slapped into suspension) LOL.
Anyway there are only THREE intities that have that e mail address and that I know for a fact.
eBay had it, my ISP had it and I had it.

I get more spam on that account (mostly phishing pp or ebay emails) than all my other e mail accounts combined.[/quote]

I've had the same thing happen with a couple of the email addresses for my posting IDs.  The email addresses were only used to register at eBay.  The only ones who know the email addresses are ebay and myself (no ISP involved)...and yet within days of registering with those emails I started receiving phishing attempts and spam.

I doubt it is ebay selling the emails though...I think an ebay employee with access to customer data who is trying to make a few extra bucks on the side is the likely culprit.  Employees selling the data of their employer's customers to the highest bidder seems to be an increasing problem at many corporations.


[quote author=xppman link=topic=369.msg1959#msg1959 date=1127571947]Hmm wonder who ebay sold this email address to? Was my thinking and stance.
Now with Skype,  I’m so sure the users are going to love getting all that unsolicited junk voice commo.

NOT.

And don’t get me started on the constitutionality of ebay giving personal info to law enforcement and government with-out say a warrant or Subpena.

[/quote]

article on eBay giving info without a warrant or subpoena:
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=925

[jezebel]

our Privacy policy.  eBay has probably the most generous policy of any internet company when it comes to sharing information

Definitely not a statement that makes me want to give out my information to them just to buy a DVD or book.    :blinkie: