November 27, 2007 at 1:08 am · Filed under Privacy, policy change · By JB
The Storque reported today that Etsy has made some changes to their privacy policy.
Bolding added by editor.
Your privacy is very important to us at Etsy! When you submit personal information to Etsy, Etsy complies with our Privacy Policy concerning how we collect, store and distribute this information.
In an effort to make the Privacy Policy easier to understand and user friendly, we have made some changes to the Policy. Please note the content of the Policy has not materially changed!
Etsy is a secure site. We are a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program and we comply with the EU Safe Harbor Framework set forth by the Department of Commerce. Pursuant to our Privacy Policy, it is our duty to notify the community of changes — even minor ones like these — to the Privacy Policy.
Now, that Storque article is closed to comments and questions, so no one can ask exactly what the changes were. I have gotten a cached version of the previous Privacy Policy, from November 19, 2007.
I have compared the old version and the new version, and the changes are as follows.
Bolding added on changed text.
__________________________________________________
Old
Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Robert Kalin at support@etsy.com . If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.
New
Due to Etsy’s commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Etsy’s legal department at support@etsy.com . If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will serve as a liaison to resolve your concerns
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Old
• We hate spam as much as you do. We never sell or disclose your name or e-mail address to third parties.
• Etsy collects personal information when you register with Etsy to use Etsy services or to post content on Etsy. When you register we ask for your email address and certain optional information such as biographical information, favorite materials and personal interests.
New
• Etsy will not sell or disclose your name or e-mail address to third parties without your explicit consent, except as specified in this privacy policy.
• Etsy collects personal information when you register to use Etsy services or to post content on Etsy. At registration you are asked for your email address and certain other optional information.
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Old
IP addresses may be used for various purposes, including: to diagnose or service technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with the IP addresses controlled by a specific web company or ISP; to estimate the total number of users visiting Etsy from specific geographical regions; to make sure that people are not voting for themselves or friends during contests or promotions.
New
IP addresses may be used for various research purposes.
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Old
We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email.
Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account by emailing support@etsy.com from the email address you signed up with.
Choice/Opt-out
If you no longer wish to receive service communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by emailing us at support@etsy.com .
New
Etsy will send you service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so.
You may not opt-out of service-related communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account by emailing support@etsy.com from the email address you signed up with.
Administrative Messages (this whole section is new)
Etsy may periodically email you with administrative messages. Etsy will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. Your information may be combined with information Etsy collects from other companies and used to improve and personalize services, content and advertising. If you don’t wish to receive administrative messages or participate in these programs, simply opt-out by emailing support@etsy.com.
Choice/Opt-out
If you no longer wish to receive administrative messages, you may opt-out by emailing support@etsy.com .
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Old
Etsy uses its own cookies for a number of purposes, including to: Access your information when you “sign in”; keep track of preferences you specify while you are using Etsy’s services; display the most appropriate advertising banners, based on your interests and activity on Etsy; estimate and report our total audience size and traffic; conduct research to improve Etsy’s content and services. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.
New
Etsy uses its own cookies for a number of purposes, including to: Access your information when you “sign in”; keep track of preferences you specify while you are using Etsy’s services; display the most appropriate advertising banners, based on your interests and activity on Etsy; estimate and report Etsy’s total audience size and traffic; conduct research to improve Etsy’s content and services.
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Old
When you post a message, your Etsy ID or alias that you are posting under is visible to other users.
New
When you post a message, your Etsy ID or alias is visible to other users.
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Old
Etsy may be required to disclose personally identifiable information under special circumstances, such as to comply with subpoenas or when your actions violate the Etsy Terms of Service. Etsy may share demographic information with business partners, such as “53% of users who regularly user Etsy chat are between 18 and 24″ or the like. No personally identifiable information will ever be used without your permission
New
Etsy may be required to disclose personally identifiable information under special circumstances, such as to comply with subpoenas or when your actions violate the Etsy Terms of Use. Etsy may disclose personally identifiable information to parties in compliance with Etsy’s Copyright Policy, as Etsy in Etsy’s sole discretion believes necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity. In such events, Etsy may disclose name, street address, city, state, zip code, country, phone number, email address and company name. Etsy may share aggregated demographic information with business partners.
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Old
Etsy does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except to provide products or services you’ve requested or when we have your permission. It may be necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Etsy’s terms of use, or as otherwise required by law. We will transfer information about you if Etsy is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Etsy will notify you by email or by putting a prominent notice on the Etsy web site before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
New
Etsy will not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with nonaffiliated parties except as specified in this Privacy Policy to provide products or services you have requested or when Etsy has your permission. It may be necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Etsy’s Terms of Use, as specified in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise required by law. Etsy will transfer information about you if Etsy is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Etsy will notify you by email or by putting a prominent notice on the Etsy web site before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
__________________________________________________
Old
As part of the buying and selling process on Etsy, you will will obtain the email address and/or shipping address of other Etsy members. By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to other users’ personal information that you obtain through Etsy or through an Etsy-related communication or Etsy-facilitated transaction, Etsy hereby grants to you a license to use such information only for Etsy-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages. Etsy and our users do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed to add an Etsy user, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent.
New
As part of the buying and selling process, you may obtain another Etsy user’s email address, shipping address and/or other information. Pursuant to Etsy’s Terms of Use, you have a limited license to use this information. This information should only be used for Etsy-related communications or for Etsy-facilitated transactions. Etsy has not granted you a license to use the information for unsolicited commercial messages. Without limiting the foregoing, without express consent from the user, you are not licensed to add any Etsy user to your email or physical mail list.
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Old
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site.
New
Without limiting the above, in an effort to respect your privacy and Etsy’s ability to keep the community free from bad actors, Etsy will not otherwise disclose your personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties without a subpoena, court order, legal process, or substantially similar legal procedure, except when Etsy believes in good faith that the disclosure of information is necessary to protect Etsy’s rights, prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss, or to report suspected illegal activity.
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Old
Bulletin Boards / Chat Rooms
New
Forums / Chat Rooms
__________________________________________________
Old
…
New
Third Parties
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information Etsy collects from you. If you disclose your information to others, whether they are buyers or sellers on Etsy or throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. Etsy does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. Etsy encourages you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
(this whole section is new)
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Old
You can delete your Etsy account at any time from your account page; however, please note that your identification, billing and contact information may remain in Etsy’s records for some period.
New
You can delete your Etsy account by emailing support@etsy.com. Please note that your identification, billing and contact information may remain in Etsy’s records for some period.
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Old
We limit access to personal information about you to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs. Your Etsy Account Information is password-protected. In certain areas, Etsy uses SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions
New
Etsy limits access to personal information about you to employees who Etsy believes reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs. Your Etsy Account Information is password-protected
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Old
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by making the change on your member account page or by emailing our Customer Support at support@etsy.com or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. We will respond to your request within 10-20 business days.
New
If your personally identifiable information changes you may correct or update it by making the change on Your Etsy Page. You may delete or deactivate your account by emailing Customer Support at support@etsy.com or by postal mail at the contact information listed below. Etsy will respond to your request within 10-20 business days.
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Old
The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number) on our registration or order forms,
New
The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number) for registration
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Old
To learn more about our SSL, follow this link.
New
(entire sentence deleted)
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Old
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our homepage.
New
If the privacy policy is changed, Etsy will post changes so that you are aware of those changes. Etsy reserves the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If Etsy makes material changes to this policy you will be notified here, by email, or other places Etsy deems appropriate.
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September 12, 2007 at 5:50 pm · Filed under Privacy · By JB
On Sept 5, 2007, someone vandalized the wikipedia.org article on Etsy. This is the 5th time this person has made this specific edit, (erasing the entire section on privacy) and the same edit has also been made by two other IP addresses. One of those IP addresses was also used to impersonate two editors at EtsyNews.
This is the history of all edits to the Etsy article on wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Etsy&action=history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/24.5.196.172
This person has erased the privacy section 5 times, without any explanation or justification.
They were blocked by Wikipedia on August 10, but they have apparently been unblocked and are continuing to vandalize the article. Twice on September 5.
Here is the talk page for that person, where they were told they have been blocked from editing any more wikipedia articles on August 10. (the block must have expired though, because they are back to vandalizing this month) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:24.5.196.172
UPDATE: The user has again been blocked on Sept. 12.
Some info on that ID 24.5.196.172 may be found at
http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx
It resolves to Berkeley, CA.
***
One of the prior deletions made to the Privacy section of the Etsy article on wikipedia.com was made on June 22, 2007 by an anonymous user. Wikipedia displays the anonymous user with this IP address:
71.58.222.47
Some info on that ID may be found at
http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx
It resolves to New Jersey.
On that same day, June 22, 2007, the same IP address posted 2 comments to threads here at UEN- impersonating 2 UEN editors: Soap and Gemmafactrix. (no longer an editor)
The email address the impersonator submitted when posting the comment as “soap” is one which soap uses solely in connection with her Etsy selling account & official Etsy activities such as transactions. The email address used by the impersonator is not the email address soap uses at etsynews.com. The only people who would know the email address soap uses for her etsy account are: people who have bought and sold from her, and etsy staff.
***
The third anonymous user who has made this same edit to the wikipedia.org article on Etsy did so with the IP number 151.197.12.194 on June 29, 2007.
Some info on that ID may be found at
http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx
It resolves to Philadelphia, PA.
For previous coverage of this issue, see this UEN article
http://etsynews.com/281/controversial-edits-to-etsys-article-on-wikipedia-specifically-privacy-issues/
September 4, 2007 at 4:31 pm · Filed under Customer Service, Laws & Regs, Privacy, Site Security · By GreenMamba
REVISED entry
Today, Etsians noticed what they thought was a new link at the bottom of the Etsy front page. The link is a clickable logo from TRUSTe, “an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user’s trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices.” (from the Etsy Privacy Policy)
In fact, Etsy’s license with TRUSTe is NOT new, but it has been re-newed - and the TRUSTe logo is now much more prominent. The privacy policy that this license pertains to is the same as before, with the exception of these two differences, one made for clarity, one to provide additional info:
- In the original TRUSTe license, Etsy was covered under iospace inc. Now, Etsy is named as a company in its own right.
- The third paragraph in Editing and Deleting Account Information now contains an additional sentence (bold lettering added for identification):
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by making the change on your member account page or by emailing our Customer Support at support@etsy.com or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. We will respond to your request within 10-20 business days.
While this info may not be new, it has served as a reminder to us all to become acquianted with, and periodically refresh our understanding of, the various policies and rules that govern Etsy.
August 28, 2007 at 7:16 pm · Filed under Features, Geolocator, Privacy · By JB
Where in the world are you?
Now you can tell everyone and be searchable by location, with the location YOU specify, not your etsy billing address.
jared says:
set your location on the planet
We just updated the Public Profile page ( http://www.etsy.com/public_profile.php ) to allow you to set your location on a map! We tried guessing where everyone is by your country and city, but for many, this has put you in the right city, but the wrong state (for example, Brooklyn, IL vs. Brooklyn, NY).
Help us get your shop in the right place. Go to your public profile now to set your position.
Thanks!
ps, this will help your shop appear in our newly launched Geolocator ( http://www.etsy.com/geolocator.php )!
Posted at 6:58 pm, August 28 2007 EST
Update:
A detailed announcement from the etsy blog
It is our pleasure to introduce to the Etsy community the latest Geolocator.
We’ve also updated your Public Profile page with an interactive Google Map. Use this map to position your shop in the world. This way you can guarantee exactly where you would like to appear in Geolocator search results. If you’re a seller, you should update this data as soon as possible.
New Features!
We’ve been working really hard to bring you the best features in the
shortest amount of time possible, however if there a new feature you’d
like to see, please let us know!
Some of the new features in Geolocator 3 include:
Place Search
Now besides being able to search by tags, materials or seller names,
you can finally search by place! The way it works is by pulling your
location information from your Public profile.
Be sure you log in into your Etsy account and update that information.
Select your country in the drop down and do a quick search for your
City by typing it in and pressing the lookup button. The location data
you provide here is the data we’ll be using within Geolocator.
Result Clustering
The number of Etsy Sellers has grown exponentially during the last
year so we needed to somehow simplify results when plotting them on a
map. Through Clustering we are now able to group users according to
their location and current zoom level, creating this way an
*approximation* of where the users are.
Deep linking, Browser History
You can now deep link directly into any specific search. Simply grab
the URL (web address) currently being displayed in your browser and
voila. The back button is also now enabled within the flash application.
Paging Through Results
Of course you can probably imagine the incredibly large number of
results we get for any search. To be able to cope with this, you can
now page through results the exact same way you’d do in most
websites, by using paging. The difference here is that these results
get plotted on the globe.
Maximized View
To fully appreciate this new application in all its full screen
glory, be sure to check the [ maximize view ] link on the top right
of the application.
The Geolocator 3 was built by Marcos Weskamp for Etsy. Marcos is truly a world class developer and a wonderful human being. It is a joy for us to be working with him. Curious about what he is working on next?
For previous coverage of the new geolocator and the privacy bugs which are finally resolved by this new map feature, see these old articles:
http://etsynews.com/352/geolocator3-part-iv/
http://etsynews.com/350/geo3-still-shows-seller-location-part-iii/
http://etsynews.com/338/ability-to-search-by-place-on-geolocator-3-disabled/
http://etsynews.com/332/help-test-geolocator3-part-2/
http://etsynews.com/314/help-test-geolocator3/
August 19, 2007 at 12:50 pm · Filed under Features, Geolocator, Privacy, Search, Site Terms · By The Janitor
See August 20 update below - seller location in Geo3 now reflects info displayed in seller’s public profile.
Our previous coverage and comments are here:
http://etsynews.com/338/ability-to-search-by-place-on-geolocator-3-disabled/
http://etsynews.com/332/help-test-geolocator3-part-2/
Re-cap & update:
-Admin solicited additional feedback on the Geo3 function
- People realized they could display the exact city location for any seller
- The location displayed did not necessarily match the seller’s own entry for “location.” Exact seller location retrievable even where the seller left location in his/her public profile blank.
- The locations appeared to be derived from current or past billing addresses provided to Etsy. To open an Etsy store, a seller is REQUIRED to submit billing info including billing address
Etsy TOS include a blurb saying they will restrict uses of confidential info submitted to Etsy
- On August 15, Jared acknowledged users’ privacy concerns and said “[t]he ability to search by place has been disabled and will not be re-enabled until a good solution is found.” Yay - privacy acknowledged!
- People still posted they could see other sellers’ city locations still. Boo - private info still showing.
- On August 17, any seller’s location was all showing as a city in Scotland. Yay - private info not showing any longer!
-UPDATE On August 19, each seller’s exact city is showing again. Appears to be derived from billing info. But City only appears to be showing without State. Boo - private info showing again.
As far as I’m aware the only time addresses are harvested on Etsy is for shipping and when an user wants to set up a store and only then it’s billing address/card info that’s submitted. Addresses are not required to have a regular Etsy account - which only required a valid email account and an Etsy password + user name.
UPDATE August 20: a seller’s location in Geo3 now reflects info displayed in the seller’s public profile. If anyone finds this is not true generally, please comment below or on the new post about this issue. Yay!
jared says:
Thanks everyone for your great feedback. :)
The ‘location’ field of the Geo3 should be showing what you type in the ‘City’ field of your Public Profile. Sorry about the Scotland error, although wouldn’t it be nice if we are all there, sharing Etsy stories in some pub by the sea?
