I now have the PHONE NUMBERS and addresses of around 300 people I sold garden seeds to.
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I SHOULD NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION SO EASY! In my humble opinion.... It's a safety risk and massive privacy reveal. WHY EBAY? Let me explain...
Yes I know, phone numbers are required for some international shipments and when using certain companies like UPS, but I'm using USPS, shipping within the USA to within the USA with international shipping turned OFF on all these auctions. SO why the numbers?
(incoming paranoid rant)What if I was a dangerous predator/stalker/crazy/scammer- I mean the list goes on. People besides just the police have access to the technology to track someones location if they know the phone number too.( obviously this is more sophisticated, but worst case scenario what someone having your phone number can mean Think about THAT! And for the scammers? a gold mine of potential victims(luckily I'm not a bad person, right?[said with a hint of sarcasm]....)
SO here's my next question, does a buyer also have automatic access to MY phone number? Will ebay give it to them if they request?
See, what I think Ebay NEEDS to do is only make phone numbers available to anyone one buyer OR seller, with a special request to Ebay itself for a VALID reason for ebay to provide that info. This will protect peoples privacy and risk.
What do you all do to get around this? Do you get a phone number that's not your actual cell phone with some service? If so please help me out with where?. I saw a post from like a year ago about a guy who paid $5 to get a phone number from Skype or something I think? Please lead me in the right direction to protect MY phone number from sellers but still be able to "check" if anyone called or messaged. Is there any service out there like that?
Thank you in advance !
Sincerely,
Me
