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EBay may have partially solved one issue privacy advocates had with proposed changes in its privacy policy. But another concern still remains.

Under the old policy, San Jose-based eBay would share user information only with law enforcement officials or in the case of disputes over intellectual property, according to eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove. That has now been changed to allow the company to share user information with other users who are involved in legal action.

That change follows a separate debate about an eBay move earlier this year to post a simplified version of its privacy policy on its Web site.

Changing the policy so eBay can share user information with other users drew the ire of Jason Catlett, president of Green Brook, New Jersey-based Junkbusters. And he rejected the company's interpretation of its own policy.

Catlett said the policy never spells out the specific instances in which it will share user information with other users, and he called on eBay to specifically detail the conditions in which it will share the information.

Standing Firm

Pursglove acknowledged that the company has been criticized for adding users to the list of people who can access information, but he said eBay is sticking with the decision. Although some privacy advocates have said the move could allow marketers to gain access to user information by pretending to be other users, Pursglove disagreed. He said the only time anyone can gain access to information is if there is a legal need.

As for the issue that first focused attention on eBay's privacy policies last February--the decision to post simplified interpretations of the policy on eBay's Web site--Catlett and fellow privacy advocate Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, disagreed on whether that was a step forward or back.

In an attempt to make its policies more user friendly in accordance to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, eBay said it would post several summaries of its privacy policy around its site, according to Pursglove. According to privacy advocates, it also added a paragraph of very technical legal language saying that the summary wouldn't be legally binding. Only the full-scale privacy policy would hold legal sway.

In Plain English

Privacy advocates, led by Catlett, who sent a letter to the FTC, said eBay should drop its legalistic explanations and simply state its privacy policy in clear and concise language, Schwartz said.

Pursglove said Tuesday that eBay ultimately agreed and changed the language to read as follows:

"It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. We have created easy-to-read summaries, privacy principles, a privacy chart, and are working on privacy enhancing technology to help summarize our full privacy policy. If you have questions about any part of this summary or if you would like more detailed information, we encourage you to review our full privacy policy."

Pursglove said that the new language would be posted on eBay's site either later Tuesday or early Wednesday, with the new policy taking effect April 19. He added that the company never had any intention of sticking with the initial language without first hearing the opinion of privacy advocates.

"The whole idea is to solicit feedback," Pursglove said.

Schwartz said eBay's decision to drop the legalistic language from the summary of its privacy policy might set a "good precedent." Catlett wouldn't go that far.

"I'm reluctant to enthuse," he said. "They started with a bad privacy policy and put in an outrageous clause, which they were then forced to remove. If this is progress, we are headed for a very bad future.

"This is a rare case where the policy became somewhat less bad," Catlett added.

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