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Old 16 January 2019, 06:49 AM   #1
SunTzu
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eBay monitors and reads your messages

So I was spending one lazy evening perusing the abyss of watch listing on eBay when I spotted a watch I liked. I private messaged the seller and offered an amount to see if he would be willing to sell it to me. He agreed. He has 100% feedback and I PayPal'd him the money. It wasn't a lot of money. We communicated a little back and forth. Nice fella. He generated a shipping label and told me it would go in the mail the next day. I've done this on one or two occasions with other items and even developed a nice online business relationship where I would receive a contact before he listed items to see if I wanted to buy. Like getting first dibs and negotiating a mutually agreeable price.

Anyway, 2 weeks later, today, I get an e-mail from eBay, a warning about buying outside of eBay. Now I understand they lose out on a cut and I'm using their platform to buy an item they miss out on. I get that.

BUT, in this e-mail is the whole chain of communication I had with the seller! It was literally lifted and pasted into this e-mail to me, word for word. My "private" messages were monitored and I guess flagged for rules violations. I was let off with a warning.

I was left rather shocked that my messages were monitored. I didn't know this went on. I'm sure it's buried in the fine print we all read (sarcasm) and accept to use their services.

It's led me to wonder about e-mails or texts I use with Verizon, or Google, or Yahoo. Even Facebook messages for those that use (I don't). Are they also monitoring my (our) private messages? We are using their services like we use eBay. I know the NSA has the metadata, but companies filtering, monitoring, and reading them? If I'm sniffed out on eBay, what can I (we) be sniffed out for in other messaging platforms?
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Old 16 January 2019, 06:58 AM   #2
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If needed they can retract all your text messages and emails even though its been deleted. Only thing safe is talk to the person face to face.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:07 AM   #3
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Yep no email or private msg is absolutely private, even phone calls can easily be recorded.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:12 AM   #4
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I am glad this is the case

Some real nut jobs out there, asking absurd questions with ridiculous offers. Glad there is actual monitoring when people refuse to pay or claim that they did not get exactly what was sold.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:17 AM   #5
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to expect them to do anything else would be naive in my opinion

i believe a phone can record you when its either on or off.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:19 AM   #6
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Big brother is everywhere....
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:22 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timedate View Post
to expect them to do anything else would be naive in my opinion

i believe a phone can record you when its either on or off.

I heard that television sets can record you even if they are unplugged, I was reliably informed by a nice man who sat next to me on a train that the earth is flat.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:24 AM   #8
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:25 AM   #9
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Big brother is everywhere....
Oh yes!!! I was talking to my Dad about the local preacher who was catching grief for buying his wife a new Lamborghini SUV. Lambo was mentioned a few times. The next day, there were a ton of ads in my Facebook feed for Lamborghinis. There are eyes and ears everywhere.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:34 AM   #10
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I am surprised the email got through. I have tried to do that and generally whatever type of analytics eBay uses to scour the emails generally blocks the seller from even getting the email in the first place.
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Old 16 January 2019, 07:59 AM   #11
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Generally if I get a message or want to offer to pay directly to avoid the cut eBay is getting, I just send them my cell and ask to text. That way eBay wont be able to detect the sale undercutting them
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Old 16 January 2019, 08:01 AM   #12
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Reminds me of how our smart phones are constantly listening to us.

Relevant digression/story for TRF. A couple weeks ago I was talking about watches with my fiancee. In particular, it was all talk about AP and waiting it out for a 15400 in blue. A day or two later she shows me her phone and how her "targeted" ads are all Royal Oak listings and AP content. She swears she has never even looked this stuff up on her own phone before (and went one step further to say it's because I am already always showing stuff too her) and that it must have been triggered by my voice while talking to her.

Regarding the eBay private message story - this doesn't surprise me at all. I wouldn't be surprised if there was language buried somewhere in the user agreement where they have the right to monitor and review user-to-user private communications. Aside from discussions of doing something illegal, I am guessing the main reason they retain this right is because they don't want their platform used as a means to open side negotiations (e.g., "if you buy this directly from me and not through eBay I'll knock an extra 5% off").
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Old 16 January 2019, 08:23 AM   #13
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Old 16 January 2019, 08:45 AM   #14
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I am glad this is the case




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Old 16 January 2019, 08:50 AM   #15
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I’m surprised the OP would be put out that eBay monitors its internal email system to stop people like him from gaming the system.
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Old 16 January 2019, 08:54 AM   #16
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Generally if I get a message or want to offer to pay directly to avoid the cut eBay is getting, I just send them my cell and ask to text. That way eBay wont be able to detect the sale undercutting them
Careful, they have been known to shut down accounts without question for people sending contact information to each other.
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Old 16 January 2019, 09:21 AM   #17
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I’m surprised the OP would be put out that eBay monitors its internal email system to stop people like him from gaming the system.
Can’t argue with this.
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Old 16 January 2019, 10:01 AM   #18
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"When You Control the (e)Mail, You Control… Information"

I already assume that the free email provider is datawarehousing email content / keywords for advertisement targeting purposes. For email, I think they don't necessary be interested in what you are actually saying. But they are certainly interested in what how many people in which region and demographic are mentioning certain brand in certain product segment. Those are very useful information.

And yes on eBay "reading" your message, they already warning user not to exchange personal contact information in their message system. You can't blame them for policing that because it cuts into their profit.

Anyway, anything on the internet is FOREVER, one way or another. :)
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Old 16 January 2019, 10:45 AM   #19
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I’m surprised the OP would be put out that eBay monitors its internal email system to stop people like him from gaming the system.
I realize I was gaming the system. That wasn't the point.

My point is if eBay does it, then why wouldn't Google, Facebook, Verizon, AT&T do it too - monitor their system to eavesdrop on conversations?

Some people make for good sheep. They say, "I don't care, I have nothing to hide."

Lenin called those people useful idiots.

Knowing now that my conversations are harvested, screened, and monitored, I'll be more careful in how I communicate with others. I was just surprised to get an e-mail with my entire conversation played back to me. I guess I assumed some modicum of privacy.
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Old 16 January 2019, 10:51 AM   #20
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Why are you suprised? The tos discloses it.
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Old 16 January 2019, 10:53 AM   #21
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I realize I was gaming the system. That wasn't the point.

My point is if eBay does it, then why wouldn't Google, Facebook, Verizon, AT&T do it too - monitor their system to eavesdrop on conversations?

Some people make for good sheep. They say, "I don't care, I have nothing to hide."

Lenin called those people useful idiots.

Knowing now that my conversations are harvested, screened, and monitored, I'll be more careful in how I communicate with others. I was just surprised to get an e-mail with my entire conversation played back to me. I guess I assumed some modicum of privacy.
You're right on the money.

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Old 16 January 2019, 11:13 AM   #22
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The Ebay system to contact a seller is not called private message and is very clearly not private. Why would you expect it to be anything other than closely monitored?

You don't make it OK to go around Ebay just by saying that you know it's wrong.

And comparing it to other platforms you communicate with is illogical.


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Old 16 January 2019, 11:26 AM   #23
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if you contact a seller/buyer do not go through ebay's system, use your personal email, but even if you use your personal and replying to their ebay account; ebay can still monitor the email, go from your personal to their personal and get out the ebay loop and all is good.
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Old 16 January 2019, 12:03 PM   #24
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Welcome to the Internet. You're late.....very late. NOTHING should be assumed to be private once it is entered into a device. Period. Sad thing is, more and more people willingly give up this privacy more and more as time goes on. Then when these companies abuse it, they act surprised.
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Old 16 January 2019, 09:58 PM   #25
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Why are you suprised? The tos discloses it.
Exactly.

Cannot understand how this would be a surprise to anyone.

Don't want a service to monitor you, then don't use it. Really simple. Kind of like this website that is crawled on the web daily with messages being cached and backed up.
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Old 16 January 2019, 10:09 PM   #26
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Fleabay watches and reads everything now days.
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Old 16 January 2019, 11:50 PM   #27
SunTzu
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And comparing it to other platforms you communicate with is illogical
It's hardly illogical. It's actually a fact if one bothers to research it.

Your Gmail inbox is not as private as you think it is!

One of numerous examples.
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Old 17 January 2019, 12:00 AM   #28
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There is no such thing as privacy anymore EVER. Those days are long past.

Heck, even when you disable microphones in your settings, your apps will just ignore and continue to eavesdrop.

That’s the world we live in now.


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Old 17 January 2019, 12:31 AM   #29
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So I was spending one lazy evening perusing the abyss of watch listing on eBay when I spotted a watch I liked. I private messaged the seller and offered an amount to see if he would be willing to sell it to me. He agreed. He has 100% feedback and I PayPal'd him the money. It wasn't a lot of money. We communicated a little back and forth. Nice fella. He generated a shipping label and told me it would go in the mail the next day. I've done this on one or two occasions with other items and even developed a nice online business relationship where I would receive a contact before he listed items to see if I wanted to buy. Like getting first dibs and negotiating a mutually agreeable price.

Anyway, 2 weeks later, today, I get an e-mail from eBay, a warning about buying outside of eBay. Now I understand they lose out on a cut and I'm using their platform to buy an item they miss out on. I get that.

BUT, in this e-mail is the whole chain of communication I had with the seller! It was literally lifted and pasted into this e-mail to me, word for word. My "private" messages were monitored and I guess flagged for rules violations. I was let off with a warning.

I was left rather shocked that my messages were monitored. I didn't know this went on. I'm sure it's buried in the fine print we all read (sarcasm) and accept to use their services.

It's led me to wonder about e-mails or texts I use with Verizon, or Google, or Yahoo. Even Facebook messages for those that use (I don't). Are they also monitoring my (our) private messages? We are using their services like we use eBay. I know the NSA has the metadata, but companies filtering, monitoring, and reading them? If I'm sniffed out on eBay, what can I (we) be sniffed out for in other messaging platforms?

I've had this several times with ebay when I have been making deals outside of eBay but never had the messages sent back to me in the emai.
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Old 17 January 2019, 12:36 AM   #30
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I use the desktop version of ebay. But, This is at the bottom of all my messages FYI

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