Expert: Marvinator - 5/27/2007

Question
I have two user ids on ebay. One for buying and one for chatting on discussion boards. A certain user has told me she can figure out what my other ebay ID is if she chooses to.
Can she do this? I thought this info was completely confidential? I am worried about my privacy. How can I protect myself?

Answer
Ebay ID's are not connected except by the credit card on file and only IF two accounts share a credit card.  There is no way that anyone can use the Ebay system to get your second account if they only know about the first one.  

Now, this is not saying that it is not impossible, but it would take a lot of extra work and a bit of social engineering.  If you ever mentioned the second account in passing or gave enough hints that someone could guess the second account, it may be possible.  BUT, there is really no way for a Non-Employee of Ebay to find out this information.  

You can protect yourself by NOT mentioning the second account ever again, not in passing or in conversation or in emails to friends.   This way, as far as anyone knows you only have one ID - and if asked, you don't admit to more than one.  

If this woman is able to find out this other id, it would be news to me and I'm a computer tech.  I'd be interested in knowing if and when she does it, because again, there is no way that I know of other than being an employee and having access to the IP addresses used by each ID.  (It would be a simple matter for someone who works with Ebay to get the IP address of your first account and then find another account using the same IP, but this also would be against Ebay privacy rules.)