EBay asking for national insurance number

[raik1performance]

Hi everyone, I recently joined for like 1 month and I start selling as a private seller , and now eBay is asking me to provide national insurance number.

"New UK digital sales reporting legislation requires sellers with 30 or more sales, or who have sales exceeding £1740 in a calendar year, to register this information"

[ghostbay-killah-420]

That is fine with me not bothered at all as i haven't sold anything in about 3 weeks now it's a ghost town at my end so no worries no income no tax.

[papso22]

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@ghostbay-killah-420 wrote:

That is fine with me not bothered at all as i haven't sold anything in about 3 weeks now it's a ghost town at my end so no worries no income no tax.

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Still breaking consumer law though with every listing.

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I prefer not to say.

[fargvs]

Suggest --- Registered as a private seller- -- time to check for Business account registration perhaps ? >>

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/selling/create-ebay-business-account

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/getting-paid/registering-seller?id=4792

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/getting-paid/start-getting-paid-ebay?id=4795&st=12&pos=2&query=S...

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I prefer not to.

[papso22]

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@ghostbay-killah-420 wrote:

I prefer not to.

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I wouldn't be surprised if you 'prefer' to do 80 miles an hour on motorways too.

Easy solution given that you are not selling anything, just  end your listings.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

that is what i also understood would happen.   They can have my NI number, every one else has so much information about me on their data that one more will not make much of a difference.  They all get hacked at some point or other!

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I prefer not to.

[battlezone]

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@kath3735_wxmjn wrote:

They can have my NI number, every one else has so much information about me on their data that one more will not make much of a difference.

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Respectfully, I disagree with that statement completely.

Your NI number is the single most precious and personal identifier possible. If that is stolen then, along with your other data, it's party time for identity thieves.

If your card details are stolen you can get it cancelled and a new one issued. If your bank details are stolen, they can be changed. If your NI number is compromised, good luck there's NOTHING you can do. Look at the mess the US are in since they started giving out their social security numbers willy nilly.

A few years ago my card details were stolen online when I was forced to use my card online due to PayPal banning transactions connected with vaping items. Just three, THREE, websites including eBay had my card details and it took barely 4 months for those details to leak.

And now HMRC, who should know better, are demanding ecommerce websites collect NI numbers. Websites that are at real risk of being hacked and/or data theft by employees who haven't been sufficiently vetted and have access to sensitive data!!

I'm sorry but no website, including eBay, can be trusted with such sensitive information. It's your decision if you choose to give it to eBay, but IMHO you're a fool if you do. After all, eBay are not your employer nor a government department.

[vintique*violet]

Absolutely in agreement with you... I do not understand how others are not seeing this. 

We were always told to keep it safe and not divulge to all and sundry! 

Would you give it to Sainsbury's when shopping? 

It appears that there is a gov/corporate " co-operation"  for want of a better word, through " rules and legislation" to garner personal data ( which we know is all sold)  making it the new " currency"  and overriding the peoples privacy and human rights. 

Once " they " have all of your personal detail , held on a central server, what do people think this truly means? Even under the GDPR we have privacy rights, however these are being diminished with the new "data use & access bill" ( research, as this leaves our personal data open to be processed with far fewer safeguards, allowing public bodies to use A.I. to make decisions without recourse, and removing our consent over our individual "sensitive" personal data) - diabolical. 

@battlezone 

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I agree with you. In the near future they might even ask 4 your bra size or whatever lol I have a big chest from doing press ups on a daily tho 48DD 😂

[vintique*violet]

Probably know it already 😉 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

well there will be an awful lot of fools on here or there will be no e bay (or any other selling site online!)  My original point still stands that my information is out there on so many sites whether government or private for various reasons and hackers/data theft is not confined to the private sites, it happens on public ones already.  If someone wants the information pretty sure they will get it.    Until they bring in mandatory SD i will continue selling on here.  Where will you go?

[jckl1957]

Really, the debate about whether or not you should give your NI Number to Ebay was argued ad nauseam when the new regulations were introduced.

It's a request from HMRC via Ebay and is a lawful request.

Of course, nobody has to give Ebay their NI number in the same way that nobody has to sell on the site.

It really is that simple.

Hand it over or stop using the site as a seller.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

Just received the request for it and given it.  I actually got the number off my tax code notification.  Millions of which have been going through the postal system over the past few weeks.  Wonder how many of them by fair means or foul got into the wrong hands?   However you give/get information there is always someone out there that will abuse the system in some criminal manner.   I prefer to keep on selling.

[papso22]

I am so old school (or is that just old), that I know mine by heart!

[jckl1957]

Me too @papso22 

And, if I ever forget, I just look at my bank account online as DWP use it as the reference when they pay me my state pension.

[lucy_farmer]

'...that I know mine by heart!'

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So do I! 

As soon as it arrived , when I was 16, my father told me to memorise it. And, rather suprisingly for a very stroppy and rebellious teenager, I did..... 😊

[kath3735_wxmjn]

To be honest out of 70+ years of having to memorise numbers (starting with my army one which i could recite to you right now (but i will not) it is one of the few that i cannot remember and what makes it worse is that it is actually a very memorable one.  In fact pretty sure that it is the kind of number that the IT people tell you is not the kind to use....  

[papso22]

I can also remember the number plates of my first two cars, from the late 70s early 80s, but have to go outside to check the one I have had since 2019!