Ebay is Data Mining?

I've been selling on Ebay for almost a decade now, to make a long story short, recently I had some problems with my account so I had to create another one. In order for me to be able to use my new account, I had to verify some information which was attributed to my old account in a series of questions. No big deal, so I clicked the link and there was a page of multiple choice questions that to say the least, completely dropped my jaw in awe... they asked me about what city my father owned property in, how old my brother was, and something about my uncle whom I haven't seen or heard from in many years.

How does Ebay know anything about who my father is or if and where he owns property, how do they know anything about my half-brother, or my uncle? Where do they get kind of information to begin with, and what does Ebay need with this kind of personal information? I've never given Ebay anything aside from my address, name, phone number and bank account information and I havent seen my father or my uncle in a long time. Anybody else run into this sort of thing on Ebay, I was floored.

Here's a copy of Ebay's Privacy Policy,
pages.ebay.co.uk...
I didn't see anything about needing to know how old my half-brother is or in what city my father owns property, maybe I am missing something.

Wouldn't surprise me...you selling odds and ends or full on business?

reply to post by Sounds_of_Silence


It's an outlet for my hobby but It's more of a business than anything lately. I'd be real interested in knowing how they get their information though, they could have easily verified my identity in any number of ways.

eBay, like any other company who needs to verify your identity for financial responsibility/anti-fraud reasons, uses third-party verification systems (much like credit reporting bureaus do) to validate identities by asking questions only you would know. It's not that eBay has all this info, but the verification services do. I've never heard of anyone asking about relatives and such, but it's very common for these services to ask things like "in what county did you own property in 1974" or that sort of thing.

And, of course, the laws/rules/customs apply in different countries, so depending on which eBay site you registered on (and in which country you live), the questions or verification methods may be different.