ETSY, what have you done?
"During the rollout of its new People Search tool, Etsy — a site which encourages people to buy and sell handcrafted or vintage merchandise — made some changes to what private information is publicly displayed by default.
As a result, Etsy users' real names and shopping histories are now public, easily searchable via Etsy, and being indexed by search engines such as Google:
Even if users haven't entered their full names, their profiles are still searchable by username. Even better, people's Etsy profiles and their purchase histories (via the feedback they leave) are beginning to show up under Google results for their names. Even if the buyer didn't leave feedback, a seller could leave feedback for the buyer and still expose what that person purchased.
Etsy users were not notified or warned about these privacy setting changes, so we imagine that many are currently rushing to conduct some damage control and prevent scenarios such as the one described by a commenter on the Penny Arcade Forums:
I just found a woman who's [sic] Etsy profile comes up on Google as the 5th link. I was expecting 6 or 7 pages down, but it's on the very first page, right after her online resumes (four of 'em - so I guess she's looking for work and this cannot be helping). She signed up a year ago, under the old privacy policy, and hasn't logged in since 2010.
And now I know what (Personal pleasure device) she uses. Right down to the curvature and coloring.
The way to prevent potential embarrassment or scenarios like that is to log into your Etsy account, head to your profile page and remove your real name. After that, find the "Your Account" link, click on "Settings" and make your purchase history private in the "Privacy" section."
(pulled from an article posted at etsy)
As a result, Etsy users' real names and shopping histories are now public, easily searchable via Etsy, and being indexed by search engines such as Google:
Even if users haven't entered their full names, their profiles are still searchable by username. Even better, people's Etsy profiles and their purchase histories (via the feedback they leave) are beginning to show up under Google results for their names. Even if the buyer didn't leave feedback, a seller could leave feedback for the buyer and still expose what that person purchased.
Etsy users were not notified or warned about these privacy setting changes, so we imagine that many are currently rushing to conduct some damage control and prevent scenarios such as the one described by a commenter on the Penny Arcade Forums:
I just found a woman who's [sic] Etsy profile comes up on Google as the 5th link. I was expecting 6 or 7 pages down, but it's on the very first page, right after her online resumes (four of 'em - so I guess she's looking for work and this cannot be helping). She signed up a year ago, under the old privacy policy, and hasn't logged in since 2010.
And now I know what (Personal pleasure device) she uses. Right down to the curvature and coloring.
The way to prevent potential embarrassment or scenarios like that is to log into your Etsy account, head to your profile page and remove your real name. After that, find the "Your Account" link, click on "Settings" and make your purchase history private in the "Privacy" section."
(pulled from an article posted at etsy)
I smell lawsuits coming....
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