eBay's Commitment to My Security

When I signed up to eBay, I didn't realise they would be keeping my personal information on disk for an unspecified time, even after I close the account. They are implicitly committed to keeping my information secure. Am I happy about that ? No.

About a year and a half ago I moved from England to Japan. I had a lot of stuff that I couldn't possibly bring. I decided to try to sell a few high value items on eBay. I'm not a big fan of eBay. It's like car boot sales in Britain: lots of people are running unregistered businesses or selling goods of questionable origin. Anyway I created an account, placed some ads and sold my stuff.

After I moved, I thought I would just let the account sleep. Time passed, eight months later there were many stories of people finding their eBay accounts had been hacked and used by other people. I was getting fed up with the junk email I was getting from eBay so I decided to delete my account.

Subject: IC NOTICE: User Account Closed per User Request ? IN PROGRESS
From: "support@ebay.com"

Dear **** (****@yahoo.co.uk),

Receipt of this notice indicates that your account is now blocked from bidding
or listing on our site. You will still be able to access your account
information to determine your final bill payable to eBay for our past services
if applicable.

We might require a waiting period for complete closure if you have had any
listing or bidding activity in the months leading up to the date of your request.

By allowing 90 days; to pass we are helping to ensure that all transactions
have been completed or at least, enable both parties to access the information
that may be needed for completing the transaction.

Once the 90 day period is over, we will automatically proceed with your account
closure request.

As part of your request, on completion we will also conceal your current
contact information, your bidding and selling history, your Feedback Profile,
and your About Me page if you have one. When we have finished that part of
the process, you will receive a final notice from eBay for confirmation.
Please note that if you have an unpaid balance on your account, eBay will
continue to use your contact information for collections efforts until your
balance is fully paid.

Final closure will forever conceal all information about your account ? for
example, once your FB profile is concealed, it cannot be restored. If you
do not wish to have your account permanently closed, please contact us
immediately.

Wow, ninety days to close my account even though there had been no activity on it for 8 months. Well at least all my records would be erased. Or would they ? Note it says "concealed" not deleted.

Roll on another six months, I received the following email:

Subject: Action Required -- Credit/Debit Card Expiration Reminder
From: billing@ebay.co.uk

Hello Lyndon Hill(****),

This is a courtesy reminder that the following credit/debit card on file for
your eBay account will soon expire:

...

Oh, how is this possible ? Why are they keeping my credit card details on a ~~deleted~~ disabled account ? I want them to delete my account! I sent them an email to ask them why and to delete my account, here is the reply:

Subject: RE:RE:RE: GS%S00128 Account Closure Request [#UK ?01 ] (#####################)
From: "eBay United Kingdom Customer Support"

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay. I understand that you're concerned about
the email you received with regard to your credit card expiration.

I have checked our records and can confirm that you have placed a credit
card as your automatic payment for your eBay fees. However, upon
replicating, I can see that your credit card has expired on August,
2008.

With regard to this, please update your credit card in order for you to
list items in your account.

Don't customer services ever read your complaint ? I sent another email again asking them to explain and close my account. This time someone actually read it.

Subject: IV%ORV047 - Your recent email to eBay Billing (#####################)
From: "eBay United Kingdom Customer Support"

Hello,

Thank you for writing back to us. I understand that you have requested
for closing your account, we have the Credit Card details on your
account.

I've removed your Credit Card details from your account as per your
request. You'll be able to confirm that we've removed your Credit Card
by checking your account status page. You can confirm this by referring
to the 'Financial Information' section which you find in the 'Personal
Information' in your "My eBay". Also, you can easily view your account
details, including whether a credit card is on file, at any time by
following the steps listed below:

1. Click "site map" at the top of the eBay homepage.
2. Click "View Your Account Status or Invoice" link under "My Selling
Account."

Furthermore, with respect to your concern regarding closure of account,
I assure you that I have taken the liberty of forwarding your email to
the appropriate department who will be reviewing the information you've
provided.

So, some action now and they are putting some thought into it by forwarding my email to get my account closed; but still only closed.

Subject: IC NOTICE: User Account Closed per User Request
From: "support@ebay.com"

Dear **** (****@yahoo.co.uk),

Receipt of this notice indicates that your account is now blocked from
bidding or listing on our site. You will still be able to access your
account information to determine your final bill payable to eBay for
our past services if applicable.

So it seems another 90 day wait might be necessary...

Subject: IV%ORC107 - Your recent email to eBay Trust and Safety (#####################)
From: "eBay United Kingdom Customer Support"

Hello,

Thank you for writing back to eBay. I appreciate the opportunity to be
of help to you regarding the closure of your eBay account "****".

I have reviewed your account and verified that there has been a delay in
the closure process. This is the reason why your account has not yet
been closed up to this point and I sincerely apologise for the said
delay.

Rest assured that I have now initiated again the said closure process on
your account and it is now currently rescheduled for closure. Your User
ID is labelled "no longer a registered user". You can still sign in and
view your account but you can't place bids or list items.

With this, your account will be closed on 30 Aug 2008.

Please note that closing your account means permanently deleting
information about the items you've bought and sold. We don't do this
straight away just in case there are problems with any of your
transactions. The amount of time it takes for us to close your account
is dependent on how long ago you last bought or sold on eBay.

I trust that the information I have provided you was able to address
your concern on the closure of your account. Thank you for your patience
and cooperation in the meantime.

Ah yes, a delay in the closing process of 3 months but at least they finally closed the account quite quickly when I pointed out that they had forgotten about it. Note again that they are "permanently deleting information about items you've bought and sold" but nothing about my other personal data.

I think this is an example of customer service going wrong, remember I was a paying customer, this is not a free service. I did get an apology though. It's not especially bad compared to other companies; particularly the classic and very annoyingly practice of not actually reading my complaint.

It does concern me that they have not promised or indicated that they will delete my personal information: that is what I wanted. I will be pursuing this issue very soon.