@moonlight-rhapsody wrote:
........Our friends in Germany have picked up that Ebay is now using our personal data to train their AI programs, and the German data protection regulatory body has objected ........
I'm not surprised.
Throughout the EU and UK under data protection regulations, companies and organisations are only permitted to collect without prior consent, that personal data that is necessary for the operation of the website, or to enable the supply of the services or goods that are offered.
They are not permitted to use this data for any other purpose (either themselves, or to pass it on to third parties) without obtaining prior "informed consent" from the user - in this case informed means that they have to explain clearly what data is being collected, and passed on and what the data is to be used for and by whom, before the user gives consent for them to do so. In other words, the legal initial status must be opted out by default, not opted in with subsequent choice to opt out.
Ebay's current position on this is a clear and flagrant breach of the law, and as such I would urge everyone to report this to the UK Information Commissioners Office. The ICO is grossly under resourced, so are rarely able to take any action unless there is a large weight of complaints against a transgressor.
