Notifications and security questions

[psy-604]

I hate how ebay asks THREE security questions so they can get into my life too far. 

Notifications about items purchased should include names of those items.

I hate ebay because it is too invasive and uncaring.

[eburtonlab]

I hate how ebay asks THREE security questions so they can get into my life too far.

eBay wants security questions that only you can answer so that if there is ever a situation where someone else gets access to your account, you can prove you are the original account holder by answering those questions and recover your account.

You can choose which questions you want to answer for your secret questions. If you do not want eBay to know actual personal details of your life, you can make up any answers you want, as you long as you can provide those answers again if eBay has to confirm your identity at some later point.

eBay does not actually care what your favorite book is, eBay just wants to be able to ask you later and get the same answer so you can prove you are the same person who originally answered the question. There are even options to choose your own phrase or the first three words of a favorite quote instead of providing details of your life that you do not want to share.

[gosimus]

@psy-604 

< hate how ebay ... get into my life too far >    

ditto @eburtonlab     Just to add, the answers wouldn't even have to be real words at all.  You can use acronyms or, my favorite, mnemonic character strings.  I usually give this advice for passwords, but it can be used for secret questions as well. 

Example:   Do you know what Fsa7yaofbfotcann is a mnemonic for?  Would it help if I told you it is the first several words of the Gettysburg Address?  (So the OP goes " The what address?")  

Nobody is going to figure out this example without the hint:   Ykicbf-Shaa     Hint:   It's the first two lines of my All Time Favorite Elvis Presley song. 

[psy-604]

Thanks, Gos.. It's still too many questions and not enough info in notifications that i have to enter my info for. Why can't ebay just put the info in the notification like Amazon does? Ebay is too hard.

[gosimus]

@psy-604 

< Why can't ebay just put the info in the notification like Amazon does? >    

I don't know.  Maybe Amazon has the subroutine copyrighted.  Maybe it's just too difficult for the eBay programmers.  Maybe they have it on the "to do" list but the priority is behind other things.  

One thing I do know, I don't see questions about eBay oppressively requiring completion of the secret questions security measure, so it surely can't be a widespread phenomenon.  I myself don't have to do it ... I can't remember if I ever had to, even once ... of course I've been a member for several years.  I hope that after you're been on site for a while, it will just go away.  Good luck.