slightly OT: eBay search by Bidder

[D. Bergin]

According to the boards on Ebay, it seems this is a knee jerk response to the recent security breach, with this particular report being the culprit.

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...rity-conc.aspx

An emphasis on the following quote:

Researchers at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering and NYU Shanghai have discovered a privacy flaw that allows site visitors to view a buyer's complete purchase history. That's a severe privacy breach, potentially revealing very personal information.

So apparently these geniuses have "discovered" a security flaw, that has existed on Ebay for as long as anybody can remember.


As recently as yesterday, Ebay pinks on the forums were pretending they didn't even know this was an issue, and would contact the tech team.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-...2179096/page/2


Apparently the tech team has been contacted and is working on the problem. The suspicious part of me thinks it will only continue to be a problem as long as people keep asking about it.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

According to the boards on Ebay, it seems this is a knee jerk response to the recent security breach, with this particular report being the culprit.

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...rity-conc.aspx

An emphasis on the following quote:

Researchers at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering and NYU Shanghai have discovered a privacy flaw that allows site visitors to view a buyer's complete purchase history. That's a severe privacy breach, potentially revealing very personal information.

So apparently these geniuses have "discovered" a security flaw, that has existed on Ebay for as long as anybody can remember.


As recently as yesterday, Ebay pinks on the forums were pretending they didn't even know this was an issue, and would contact the tech team.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-...2179096/page/2


Apparently the tech team has been contacted and is working on the problem. The suspicious part of me thinks it will only continue to be a problem as long as people keep asking about it.

If the reason mentioned on the boards that Dave quoted is accurate, then I fear that this feature is gone for good. Ebay does not have a good track record of implementing or updating potentially-useful features these days, but does have a long history of quickly removing anything publicly criticized, saying they are taking action, providing no details until everyone goes away and quits asking about it, and then never reinstating or successfully revising anything. The current programmers seem to be slowly dismantling or corrupting the base system that the early programmers put in place, and I doubt any of the original programmers are still around to tell them why those useful features were put in place to start with.