Ebay using Personal Data to train AI - Privacy Policy

Ebay updated their Privacy Policy on 21st April.  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 on the following grounds.

 

"It is currently not sufficiently clear which personal data of users will be used. The exact purposes of the intended AI training remain unclear, as does the question of who is allowed to use the data.
 

Furthermore, there is a lack of information about which AI models will be used. In our opinion, the requirements for transparency regarding the planned data processing have not yet been sufficiently met."

Souce article 

 

 

Buried in the depths of ebay’s Privacy Policy is the ability to opt out of allowing ebay to use our personal data to train its AI programs.   http://accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/ai-preferences
 
The personal data that ebay collects can be seen at Sections 4.1 - 4.5, Privacy Policy 
 
 
I’ve looked back at the email ebay sent on 19 March about the Privacy Policy update.  Although it mentions that there is a new section on AI, it does not tell you that you can opt out or provide a link to the appropriate button.  Nor is it easy to find the opt-out button when you click the link provided in the email.  This seems to me to be more than a little remiss on ebay's part.
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Ebay using Personal Data to train AI - Privacy Policy


@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.

 

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Ebay using Personal Data to train AI - Privacy Policy

Thank you for this info - have now opted out & also passed on your link to opt out to a few others.

“We haven’t got a plan so nothing can go wrong!” Spike Milligan
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