One of the changes to eBay's user agreement involves the circumstances under which the company may suspend a member or remove a seller's listings. Currently, the company warns customers that, among other reasons, they can be suspended if their actions will cause a legal liability to the company, other customers or themselves. Under the new user agreement, the company can also suspend customers if eBay believes their actions may cause a financial loss to the company, other customers or themselves. EBay does not set a limit for how large the financial loss has to be or whether actions taken off eBay might be taken into account. That worries Baldwin, who notes that the wording of the agreement would allow eBay to base its decision on the perception that someone might cause a loss, not the reality of an actual loss. Under that reading, the company might be able to ban customers for negative statements they made on a chat board on or off eBay, she said. "It's too broad," she said. "If they are talking about hacking, then they should say so. As it is, it's a licence to ban anybody for anything that eBay feels may cause them a financial loss." Meanwhile eBay has changed its privacy policy to warn members that it may be more willing to give out their personal information to other users or companies. Previously, eBay warned members that it would give out information about them in connection with government investigations or inquiries by companies that felt their copyrights had been violated. Under the new policy, eBay warned it could give out information "as we in our sole discretion determine necessary or appropriate to maintain a level of trust and safety in our community and to enforce our user agreement, privacy policy and any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through our site." Junkbusters' Catlett says that's going too far. "They've written in for themselves the right to disclose pretty much anything they feel like to any of their users," he said. One eBay seller said she wasn't happy with the proposed changes. "The problem is, I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it," said Roanoke, Texas, resident Connie Lawrence. Members who do not agree with the changes can cancel their eBay registration, the company said.
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