“…Sullivan was speaking to senior representatives of numerous law-enforcement agencies in the United States on the occasion of “Cyber Crime 2003,” a conference that was held last week in Connecticut. His lecture was closed to reporters, and for good reason. Haaretz has obtained a recording of the lecture, in which Sullivan tells the audience that eBay is willing to hand over everything it knows about visitors to its Web site that might be of interest to an investigator. All they have to do is ask. “There’s no need for a court order,” Sullivan said, and related how the company has half a dozen investigators under contract, who scrutinize “suspicious users” and “suspicious behavior.” The spirit of cooperation is a function of the patriotism that has surged in the wake of September 11. …”
heh, even before that, they would give you anyone’s information if you had a valid reason. it’s not a very secure place for home information. if you plan on doing anything major, i’d suggest a po box
buying and selling stuff blindly like that is risky to start with… I can’t say I’m too opposed to my info on ebay getting out. If yer worried about your address, you’d better not be throwing it around on the net to begin with. I’m always amazed at how little fraud goes on on ebay and half.com. I know it DOES happen, but Ebay’s policy is the only reason I feel comfortable sending a money order blindly to an address with the hopes of some merchandise in return.
I think most of us always new that the Federal government could get at about any such information that they wanted to. Even if Internet companies tried to refuse to cooperate, the government could get a warrant, or just take the information without asking.
Post anything for sell (optics,etc.) that a terriorist group might find of use and you will get requests to send the item to about every country they operate in (even if you post no shipments outside of the US). It’s creepy. Not worth it as far as I am concerened.
