Safeguarding Member IDs is an approach to auction-style listings that offers more privacy for our members by changing how bidding information is displayed.

Since we launched Safeguarding Member IDs in late 2006, we’ve been monitoring results and listening to feedback from our Community. Based on this, we’ve made some changes to our approach that allow us to increase the level of openness, while still maintaining a high level of security.

One area that members specifically reported was working less well for them since the Safeguarding Member IDs project launched, was the Advanced Search by Bidder feature. To respond to these concerns, we’ve made some changes to this feature. Please see below for details.

What is Safeguarding Member IDs all about?

The Safeguarding Member IDs project changed how bidding information is displayed. We believe this approach will help to balance the need for openness in the eBay marketplace with the need to protect our Community of members from the threats that have appeared as the Internet has flourished.

We also believe the Safeguarding Member IDs project provides the Community with enough information about the bidders involved in an auction-style listing for them to feel confident in placing a bid -- without revealing actual User IDs. We've implemented this system on listings where the high bid is £100 or greater, which is where we believe it can have the greatest positive impact. The bid information for listings where the bid is lower than £100 will display as it always has. However, we will continue to monitor the situation, and this threshold may change in future.

Here's What Will Change:

We are continuing to monitor this feature, and are planning future updates that will provide even more information about the seller and bidders involved in a sale. We’ll let the Community know more about these changes as they become finalised.

Why did eBay make this change?

Since eBay began, it's been our job to balance the need for openness and transparency in the marketplace, with the need to protect our Community of members from the threats that have appeared as the internet has flourished. As the Community has grown, we've had to take measures to protect our members that also reduce transparency.

In the past, any member of the Community could request the contact details of any other member and the bidding process was very transparent. As we grew, we limited communication to members involved in transactions with each other. We then eliminated the public display of email addresses from the site, and therefore required thousands of people to set up new User IDs. Naturally, as we've stepped up education and other efforts to improve safety, potential fraudsters continued their efforts to try to exploit our members.

The User IDs of members -- plus their member information such as Feedback and previous bidding and/or buying activity -- have always been freely available to anyone visiting the site. Members have been able to access this information from the item page, bid history page, and Advanced Search by Bidder feature. Unfortunately, while bid history and contact information about trading colleagues is helpful when evaluating a transaction and provides a level of trust within the transaction, potential fraudsters can use this information to defraud other members.

The spam, spoof, and fake Second Chance Offer emails have not gone away. In fact, despite industry-leading efforts to educate the Community about online safety (eBay Toolbar, tutorials and safety messaging), partnering with law enforcement and industry groups, and investments in technology that make the site safer, we've seen this problem grow. Increasingly, sellers and buyers have turned to us for a solution.

We believe the Safeguarding Member IDs project provides the Community with enough information about the bidders involved in an auction-style listing in order for them to feel confident in placing a bid, without revealing User IDs.

Will eBay lose the trust of buyers by hiding bidder information?

It's very important that eBay buyers trust our buying process. That's why we are developing an approach that will give members information about relevant transaction activity for the members involved in an auction-style listing without revealing specific User IDs. It is also why we are constantly evolving the approach, largely based on Community feedback.

How will eBay continue to detect shill bidding?

It's important to remember that, while the public will not have access to User IDs in some circumstances, eBay will continue to have the same access to information that we have today.

eBay takes the issue of shill bidding (the use of a secondary bidding account to increase the level of bidding and the apparent value of an item) very seriously. Shill bidding is a breach of policy and, when detected, we take action against offenders.

In the last several years, we've invested heavily in shill detection systems that enable us to proactively detect and investigate possible shill bidding scenarios with a higher rate of accuracy than ever before. Our systems collect more information on selling and bidding activity than our Community has access to, so we can detect patterns and identify members much more accurately.

With the information provided the Safeguarding Member ID project, we believe that members will still be able to detect and report suspicious activity. While we proactively search the site for shill bidding, we do appreciate the reports from the Community of suspicious activity and will continue to investigate them and take action where appropriate.

If I can't see the User ID of the member who outbid me, how do I know that the bid was legitimate?

While specific User IDs will not be visible, individual bidders will be identified by an alias (such as Bidder1, Bidder2, etc.). For each bidder involved in a listing, we'll display the number of bids that they've placed in unique categories, a range that their feedback score falls within (eg: 10- 49), their percentage of positive feedback, their length of time as an eBay member, and the number of bids they've placed on the item.

Naturally, if you ever suspect any suspicious activity, you can report it as you do today through the eBay Toolbar or through Help on the site.

Future enhancements are being designed that will provide even more transaction information about the bidders and seller involved in a transaction. We’ll continue to update the Community on these changes as these plans become finalised.

If I'm a seller, can I see the bid history on my own listings?

Yes. If you are the seller you will continue to have access to the User IDs for the bidders on your active listing through the bid history page and the My eBay selling table.

How will this impact 3rd-party tools?

Some 3rd-party tool providers will need to make adjustments. Please work directly with these service providers for more details.

How will members spot malicious bidding or attempts by others to interfere with the site?

Malicious bidding is an action perpetrated against a seller. In this case, the logged-in seller will still be able to see the member User IDs on the bid history page. Sellers will also be able to check feedback, and see a bidder's most recent items where there has been feedback exchanged.

Can members search for one another using the "Items by Bidder" option under Advanced Search?

A member can search for another member using Advanced Search, "Items by Bidder". However, only the details of that bidder's activity on items below the £100 threshold on items won in the last 30 days will be displayed.

I use Advanced Search "Items by Bidder" to find other sellers with listings I might want to bid on. Will I still be able to do this?

You will now be able to see all the details of the bidder's activity on items below the £100 threshold. In addition, you will now be able to see a list of sellers selling similar items by clicking on the "View sellers of similar items" link on the Bid History page.