How about doing a follow up article with some empirical data showing how the information that eBay has released to Law Enforcement has been abused, as that seems to be the implied fear. If no one knows that fraud on eBay and other auction sites is rampant and their concerns are if LEnforcement has some information on them or not, I would say that their concerns are misplaced. Check www.fraud.org or simply google about auction fraud. Quote from fruad.org "The average loss to consumers from January-June 2005 is
$2,579, compared to $895 in all of 2004."

So, again, please direct the reader to your data that shows some rampant abuse (or for that matter ANY abuse) of the eBay information. Also did you ask the speaker at the above mentioned conference what (if any) controls were in place to verify the LE agency that may be faxing for information, like a call back (and other verification) before sending private information (which IS the case and it IS easy to verify a phone number as really belonging to a LE agency). Or would you rather your readers believe that their private info is just flying away to whomsoever asks for it (makes a better story eh?)?

Please give us some data so that this story is not mistaken as being an implication of "weird anecdotes" by "eccentric individuals who embody some strange aspect of the human condition".

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/357/32438#32438