From Business Insider 3/16/11 This article originally from Etsy Bitch-> Huff Post->Business Insider
The online vintage and crafts marketplace recently caused an uproar when Etsy users suddenly discovered that some of their information had been made publicly viewable. We're talking feedback posts, purchases and user profiles. But that's not what sparked the outrage—in some cases, real names and email addresses were made public AND searchable.
All of this was because of Etsy's new People Search tool, which lets anybody search for Etsy users—buyers and sellers alike—and let's those user profiles show up in Google. On those public profiles, you could find real names, purchase history and feedback left. Their goal—to build a community feature called "Circles" that lets users connect with each other. Etsy never notified users of this change in its privacy policy—websites can do what they want, when they want, apparently. And some of the users affected may not want people seeing feedback that was once personal exposed, especially when it comes to something like dildos. Etsy has since corrected the problem in their feedback system due to user concerns, but you still need to take control of your Etsy account to keep it from prying eyes.
Step 1 Log In
Step 2 Account
Click the Your Account link in the top right-hand side of the webpage next to your user name.
Step 3 Settings
Now, on the left-hand menu bar, click on the Settings link.
Step 4 Privacy
Click on the Privacy tab to view your privacy settings.
Step 5 Favorites
If you want to make your favorites private, then select Only you (private).
Step 6 Findability
If you don't want other users to find you by your email address, then select No.
Step 7 Purchases
Your purchase history remains private on Etsy, and that had never changed. What changed is the feedback system, which Etsy updated, as mentioned before.
Step 8 Save
Make sure to save all of your changes made by pressing the Update Privacy Settings button at the bottom. Your changed will not be saved unless you do so.
Step 9 Real Name
To keep your "real name" from showing up in Google search or Etsy search, then you'll want to change it to an alias. Click on Profile in the left-hand menu bar.
Click the Change link next to your full name used and change to whatever you'd like.
Step 10 Profile Settings
To further control your Etsy user profile, scroll down to the bottom of the Profile page in Your Account. Here you can verify that your favorites are set to private, along with a few more changes you can make to what's included on your profile page.
Now, these changes are the best you can do to protect your information on Etsy, aside from deleting your account. It may not prevent another Etsy debacle, but it definitely helps in the now.
3 comments:
This doesn't block people from viewing my profile, they can still look at my profile page and see my real name right on it. Blocking favorites and treasuries isn't nearly good enough, and does not address the core issue of them releasing my NAME without my consent.
I don't think that doing all these steps is the whole answer. The space for my "real name" showed nothing. And that is not correct. I used my full name, my real name, when I set up my Etsy shop. So what is showing on my profile is not correct. I went ahead and put in my first name and the name of my shop as my last name. Now I wonder where they have hidden my "real name" and how it will be released somewhere.
I had done most of this, but you put it very clearly and easy to understand. I applaud you.
What I want to know is how to go about changing the address the customer gets when they purchase, I would really like to protect that, too, by making changes to my name or PO.
Post a Comment