15 min article

User Privacy Notice

In our User Privacy Notice we have compiled all essential information about our handling of your personal data and your corresponding rights.
 

This User Privacy Notice is effective from April 21, 2025. View the previous User Privacy Notice.

1. Scope and updates of this User Privacy Notice

This User Privacy Notice applies to your use of this website and all eBay applications, services (including payment services), products and tools (collectively the "Services") provided by eBay Inc. or its affiliates (eBay Inc. and the companies it directly or indirectly controls are referred to as "eBay Affiliates"). This User Privacy Notice applies regardless of how you access or use these Services, including access via mobile devices and apps. For additional regional and state disclosures, please see section 13. Regional and State Privacy Disclosures below.

2. Controller

Which eBay Affiliate is responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data in connection with the provision of the Services depends on how you use our Services.

2.1 Use of the Services (except payment services for sellers)

Depending on the region in which you reside, one of the following eBay Affiliates is responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data in connection with the provision of our Services (except payment services for sellers). Your region of residence is determined based on your account registration address (where available) or your location (in all other cases):

  • USA: eBay Inc., 2025 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125, USA
  • Canada: eBay Canada Limited, 240 Richmond Street West, 2nd Floor Suite 02-100 Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1V6, Canada
  • EU: eBay GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Ring 2-6, 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany
  • United Kingdom: eBay (UK) Limited, 1 More London Place, London, SE1 2AF, United Kingdom
  • India: eBay Singapore Services Private Limited, 1 Raffles Quay, #18- 00, Singapore 048583
  • For all other countries: eBay Marketplaces GmbH, Helvetiastrasse 15/17, 3005 Bern, Switzerland

2.2 Use of the payment services for sellers

Depending on the region in which you reside or where your payments are processed, the following eBay Affiliates are responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data in connection with the provision of our payment services to you as a seller:

  • USA: eBay Commerce Inc., 2065 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, USA
  • EEA/CH: eBay S.à r.l., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg
  • UK: eBay Commerce UK Ltd., 1 More London Place, London SE1 2AF, United Kingdom
  • Canada: eBay Commerce Canada Limited, 240 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1V6, Canada
  • Australia: eBay Commerce Australia Pty. Ltd., Level 18, 1 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
  • For all other countries: eBay Commerce Inc., 2065 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, USA

As described in our Payments Terms of Use - opens in new window or tab, your personal data may be processed by one or more of these entities depending on your location and the eBay website on which a user completes a transaction with you.

3. Data protection officer and contact

We have appointed data protection officers in several countries to oversee the protection of your personal data. You will find the contact details of your data protection officer in the list of our data protection officers - opens in new window or tab as well as further information on the Privacy Contact page - opens in new window or tab in our eBay Privacy Center - opens in new window or tab.

Furthermore, if you have any questions or complaints regarding this User Privacy Notice, our global data protection principles (see section 6.1 Data transfers to eBay Affiliates under section 6. Cross-border data transfers below) or our handling of personal data, you can contact the eBay Privacy Team or the controller who is responsible for the processing of your personal data at any time (for further information, see section 2. Controller above). This applies regardless of whether we have appointed a data protection officer in your country. You can find all necessary information and contact details - opens in new window or tab in our eBay Privacy Center - opens in new window or tab.

4. What personal data we collect and process

 

We collect your personal data when you use our Services, create a new eBay account, provide us with information via a web form, add or update information in your eBay account, participate in online community discussions or otherwise interact with us. We also collect personal data from other sources (such as other eBay Affiliates, credit agencies or bureaus, and data providers).

5. Purposes and legal bases for data processing and categories of recipients

We process your personal data for various purposes and based on several different legal bases that allow this processing. For example, we process your personal data to provide and improve our Services, to provide you with a personalized user experience on this website, to contact you about your eBay account and our Services, to provide customer service, to provide you with personalized advertising and marketing communications, and to detect, prevent, mitigate and investigate fraudulent or illegal activity. We also share your information with third parties, including service providers acting on our behalf, for these purposes. In addition, we may share your personal data among eBay Affiliates in order to fulfill our contract with you under the User Agreement and, if applicable, the Payments Terms of Use - opens in new window or tab.

6. Cross-border data transfers

 

Some recipients of your personal data are located outside your jurisdiction or have offices in jurisdictions where data protection laws may provide a different level of protection than the laws in your jurisdiction. When transferring personal data to such recipients, we provide appropriate safeguards.

7. Storage duration and erasure

 

Your personal data will be stored by us and our service providers in accordance with applicable data protection laws to the extent necessary for the processing purposes set out in this User Privacy Notice (see section 5. Purposes and legal bases for data processing and categories of recipients for more information on the processing purposes). Subsequently, we will delete your personal data in accordance with our data retention and deletion policy or take steps to properly render the data anonymous, unless we are legally obliged or permitted to keep your personal data longer (e.g. for legal compliance, tax, accounting or auditing purposes, or to detect and prevent fraudulent or illegal activity on eBay). In Europe, the retention periods are generally between 6 and 10 years (e.g. for contracts, notifications and business letters). As far as legally permissible or required, we restrict the processing of your data instead of deleting it (e.g. by restricting access to it). This applies in particular to cases where we may still need the data for the execution of the contract or for the assertion of or defense against legal claims, or where such retention is otherwise required or permitted by law. In these cases, the duration of the restriction of processing depends on the respective statutory limitation or retention periods. The data will be deleted after the relevant limitation or retention periods have expired.

8. Rights as a data subject

 

Subject to possible restrictions under national law, as a data subject, you have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and data portability with regard to your personal data. In addition, you can withdraw your consent and object to our processing of your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests. You can also lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

9. Cookies & similar technologies

 

When you use our Services, we and authorized third parties make use of cookies and similar technologies (which we will refer to collectively as "cookies") to provide you with a better, faster and safer user experience or to show you personalized advertising. You can find detailed information about the use of cookies and similar technologies and your choices in our User Cookie Notice.

10. Data security

 

We protect your personal data through technical and organizational security measures to minimize risks associated with data loss, misuse, unauthorized access and unauthorized disclosure and alteration. To this end we use network security services and data encryption, for example, as well as physical access restrictions for our data centers and logical access controls for data and systems access. You can find further information on our data security in our Security Center - opens in new window or tab.

11. Other important information regarding data protection

This section contains important additional information about the protection of personal data in connection with the use of our Services, including whether you are required to provide personal data.

12. eBay and AI

Responsible AI

We are committed to developing and using artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly, ensuring that we use AI to enhance the eBay experience and respect the needs of the entire eBay community. To achieve this, we have invested in a robust Responsible AI (RAI) approach at eBay which leverages the RAI principles set out in our RAI Policy - opens in new window or tab. These principles direct the development, deployment, and use of AI at eBay.

Use of AI

We may use AI-powered tools and products for various purposes, including:

  • To improve and enhance our Services.
  • To offer you new or enhanced features and products (such as AI-powered listing generation, image background enhancement, and AI assistants).
  • To make information about listings and services more accessible, such as by offering AI-generated summaries of product reviews.
  • To offer you a more customized and personalized experience.
  • To provide you with enhanced customer service, for example, to bring real-time answers to chat, to analyze customer service interactions to improve their quality or to better understand customer pain points, and to help respond to customer queries.
  • To support fraud detection, and compliance checks, and to detect suspicious activity on our properties.
  • To analyze data for specific patterns (e.g. for market research purposes).
  • To support us in our day-to-day work (e.g. to create summaries, to translate text or to generate images).

AI-powered tools and products may involve personal data processing, but this is not necessarily the case. We use both our own AI models and third-party AI models and systems to deliver AI-powered tools and products. If our use of AI involves the processing of personal data, we rely on the legal bases set out in Section 5. Purposes and legal bases for data processing and categories of recipients above for the purposes mentioned therein. If we use any AI system that interacts directly with you, we will let you know.

AI development and training

Where permitted under applicable law, we use personal data collected from our users to train, test, validate, and align our own AI models as well as third-party AI models and systems that we use for the purposes outlined in this User Privacy Notice. This may include the personal data set out in Section 4. What personal data we collect and process. We may combine personal data from our users with data from external sources (e.g. from publicly available sources). The use of personal data for AI development and training is based on our legitimate interest to achieve the objectives outlined under "Use of AI" above.

When training, testing, validating, and aligning AI models, we take appropriate steps to mitigate potential privacy impacts (e.g. through filtering, data masking, differential privacy techniques). Where applicable, our steps are based on data protection impact assessments and the legitimate interest assessment that we carry out. These take into account the purpose of the model, the need and suitability of certain training data, as well as measures that can be reasonably taken during training and thereafter.

AI-related individual rights

You have rights with regard to your personal data. See Section 8. Rights as a data subject above for more details. Your rights also include the right to object - opens in new window or tab to our processing of your personal data for AI development and training purposes.

13. Regional and State Privacy Disclosures

For additional regional disclosures for residents of certain U.S. states, including California, please review our State Privacy Disclosures - opens in new window or tab page. For U.S. sellers (including those in California, Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont), please follow the link to eBay Commerce Inc.'s U.S. Consumer Privacy Notice - opens in new window or tab. For additional disclosures for specific regions or countries, including Brazil, mainland of People's Republic of China, and the United Kingdom, please review our Regional Privacy Disclosures - opens in new window or tab page.

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