Tracking through emails / Web beacons / TOKENS / index.dat files? WHAT ELSE?

[aspkin]

It's been said that eBay slaps you with cookies when you open up certain emails from them. Usually the random emails, about promotions, questionnaires, those sorts. These cookies, once loaded into your browser can send information back to eBay once you sign into your eBay account.

There have been a few people suggesting this, and others saying eBay doesn't do this. In some ways, I know eBay implants beacons in their messages which does send information back to eBay servers, though I don't think they use that information other then statistics.

Though I will say, it's never a good idea to open any email from a suspended eBay account. The only way I would do it, is from another machine then my primary one. I've always done this, maybe for this reason, or paranoia, but it seemed to work, and I've had less linked accounts because of it.

[The_Nightfly]

Originally Posted by aspkin

These cookies, once loaded into your browser can send information back to eBay once you sign into your eBay account.

Thanks for the quick reply, aspkin. I think I will be OK as I have taken an extra step that some may find to be helpful. I am using VMWare to run a virtual Linux installation from inside of Windows. This way I have basically created a completely clean OS to do all of my eBay dealings from.

In the worst case scenario, if I did receive a cookie from opening that e-mail, it will never be linked to my IP because I'll be in Linux whenever I log-in.

For extra protection, you can install the user agent switcher extension into Firefox so that your browser will always appear as IE6/Windows XP to eBay.

Those of you that still have problems after following all of the guides directions may find that using a virtual machine could be the answer. My new account was opened hours ago, I will keep you updated should it happen to be suspended.

[howdyfolks]

Aspkin since you have created these techniques, how has your success been....

[sss99]

How about this: What if I open the email, and as soon as I opened the email and answer it, I go clean up all my cookies. Will I be completely safe this way?

Or what if I forward that email to another one of my email addresses. And then read the email from my other email address.

[howdyfolks]

cool, I am right behind you guys, I will keep you updated

[JackNoMore]

I still don't follow how ebay can possibly link you just by say going to an old email WITHIN your email account (yahoo, aol, gmail, hotmail, whatever) and just poking around in the MESSAGE ONLY to look for information...such as checking on the address of an old buyer for instance...but NOT replying to it in any way ,clicking on ANY links within that message...then exiting right out and maybe clearing your cookies/cache just to be safe. Now I can understand how a link can occur if you click on anything at all within the message, as that would direct you straight to the source, alerting of your presence, but just reading it in your own email??! That would mean that any business or individual who knows what he/she is doing can know every single time you access your email. Talk about Big Brother!! I seriously doubt they have that power, and if they do...why aren't they using it?? We would have heard something by now I'm sure if this was indeed the case.

[howdyfolks]

You are making this more trouble than it is...keep it simple. Do not open ebay emails outside of the ebay website. Anything else, your taking a chance.

[aspkin]

howdyfolks, since figuring how eBay works, I've had great success. If it wasn't for VeRO suspensions, I would never been suspended.

Jack, read the beginning of this thread. There is a lot of insightful information that relates to your comment.

Though we're not 100% sure if eBay leaves cookies on your machine, it's a good idea not to open any emails from a suspended account of yours once your create a new account. If you must, do it on another machine to not risk your new account.

[aspkin]

Yep, it's fairly easy. You just need the right software to do it and a person can find out if you opended their email, if you clicked on any links and more. Easy stuff, I do it all the time.

[hungrymarketer]

I use this CCleaner to clean up all the junkies including cookies, internet history.... etc...

This should work for you guys... However, it does not change ip address.

This also does not remove ebay software such as turbo listing.

CCleaner is a system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It's fast (normally taking less that a second to run). It cleans: Internet Explorer (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat); Firefox (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history); Windows (Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files); Registry cleaner (Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts. So comes with a comprehensive backup feature.) Third-party applications (Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip).



CCleaner - Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com

[CPUGEEK]

Originally Posted by hungrymarketer

I use this CCleaner to clean up all the junkies including cookies, internet history.... etc...

This should work for you guys... However, it does not change ip address.

This also does not remove ebay software such as turbo listing.

CCleaner is a system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It's fast (normally taking less that a second to run). It cleans: Internet Explorer (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat); Firefox (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history); Windows (Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files); Registry cleaner (Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts. So comes with a comprehensive backup feature.) Third-party applications (Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip).



CCleaner - Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com

Thats all I use.. I 've veen using that for months.. Dont worry your Ip doesnt matter as much. Do you have dial up or cable internet?

[hungrymarketer]

Originally Posted by CPUGEEK

Thats all I use.. I 've veen using that for months.. Dont worry your Ip doesnt matter as much. Do you have dial up or cable internet?

DSL, So far ok for 2 days...

[belerim]

I notice something more about cookies and I would would like to share it with you guys and please correct me if I am wrong.
Let's say you connect to Ebay, right after that in your browser (IE) you'll get some cookies.
A cookie is a file with a name and a specific content - Now the cookies are trackable by the webserver (Ebay) using their content and their NAME.
If you're using Windows (no matter what version) you will have an account when you log in your operating system - The name of that account will be part of the name of your cookies.
If your account's name is John the cookie will be cookie:john@ebay.com.
Now lets say you delete all the cookies and restart your browser, first time you will hit Ebay you'll get cookies with the same name as the deleted one.
These personal login accounts could be pretty common (see: John) and that's why I don't believe that Ebay will search only for this, but for a combined search (multiple criteria sorting) they will might put it in the equation.
In order to avoid that I created on my computer multiple accounts - One for each Ebay account and I log off/on to the right Windows account for the specific Ebay account.
That way I don't even have to delete cookies as IE keeps separate cookies for each account.
If you have any comments please share.

[JackNoMore]

The only bad thing about firefox is that ebay's servers aren't well supported for them. At least that's been my experience. For instance on the old sell form (why oh WHY they had to switch to the new form!) you can't put in a standard listing with html integrated. You can put in html, but that takes time. I suppose you could save a template and then change just a few things, but you'd have to start from square one if you ever ran into ebay problems. Another thing is the ebay chat seems to be less cooperative with firefox. These are all small prices to pay for having firefox, but still ebay should get with the times.

On a related note, does anyone know if download history can get you into trouble just as easily as the cookies and cache? I have firefox set to delete everything but the history upon closing. I keep about the last 10 days in reserve just in case, it's nice to be able to revisit old search pages and whatnot sometimes, especially if you're not logging into suspended accounts, just looking at pages you visited on good accounts. Plus I'll admit I'm a bit of a packrat, I like to think of it as being prepared I wonder if that is the major cause for a system slowdown. I have been having problems with that lately. Maybe I need to cut it down to just 5 days...

[JackNoMore]

For anyone who ever wanted to know about Tokens, what they are, how and when to use them, and if they can or can't be used to identify you to ebay, this is the thread for you. For some time now I've been looking for answers to the question of whether your IP is shared with ebay through the use of tokens, and from what I've found so far, all the sources I've spoken with, all the material I've read, every indication leads to yes. Yes, your IP can be shared with ebay through the use of tokens. What I have yet to find out though is whether third party programs such as the popular Auctiva and InkFrog give off more sensitive information than just your IP when creating a token. Is this token unique to your computer system, or just a random number combination created at that particular time through that particular IP address? The short answer is I don't know...yet. But if in fact the information that is passed on to Ebay through the third party can easily be linked back to your COMPUTER, and not just your IP, cache or cookies, this could be a major problem for anyone who has had a suspended account (IOW the majority of this forum I'd gather) and continues to go back to these parties to list or even host pictures!

If anyone has a definitive answer or just some thoughts to just how much more sophisticated these third party tokens are to the traditional ebay defenses, please share it here. I'm sure there are many like myself who would like to hear the truth.

[make0moneyonebay]

all the 3rd party softwares get a token from ebay. What is token? aspkin, modee, do you guys know?

[make0moneyonebay]

we have concern on if we use 3rd party software to access ebay. Will ebay get our iP? or ebay just get 3rd party software server's ip. Thanks, Modee.

[JackNoMore]

Modee, tokens are used by these third parties to identify you to ebay so they don't have to ask you for your password or other sensitive material when submitting auctions or hosting material. But through discussions I've had and questions asked, it appears that they also identify your IP to them, and possibly more. I'm not sure exactly how much more, or how indepth they go, but until we know more, I consider them on the same alert level as anything in an email as MANY use the third parties and it's growing every day, what with ebay's new "improved" (read pathetic) SYI tool, turbolisters many glitches, and the fact that they offer something ebay would never do again--offer free services. If in fact they have a way of identifying not only your IP, but that SPECIFIC computer, it could be a BIG source of suspended accounts.

This doesn't really belong in this thread though in my opinion as like you said it has nothing to do with emails and it will only defeat the purpose and confuse the point of this thread. That's why I started the new thread. I really feel it's important and different enough to be worthy of it. Please consider it. Thanks

[CPUGEEK]

jack I asked auctiva..

Tokens is nothing more then giving permission for a 3rd party company to access your ebay account. NO information is shared...The only thing about auctiva is that i would change up the pictures and templates if you were previsouly suspended.

tokens do not give out secure information.

[CPUGEEK]

Heres what auctiva wrote me...

Hello,

When you click a "Generate eBay Token" button, you are redirected to the eBay sign-in screen. eBay requests that you specifically agree to let them share necessary information from your eBay account with Auctiva Corporation for Auctiva functions. When you click on "Agree and Continue," eBay assigns the token and you are switched back to the Auctiva screen with your eBay identity linked.

Below is the text of agreement:

In order to fulfill your request to use Auctiva Corporation on eBay, we need to give Auctiva Corporation access to some information about you. This information will be encrypted in a way that Auctiva Corporation will only be able to use it to perform the following functions on your behalf:

* Display the status of items I sell.
Information that is currently available in the selling section of My eBay.
* List new items for sale, relist items, sell similar items, or make a second chance offer.
Perform item listing actions on my behalf using tools similar to Sell Your Item, etc...
* Add to item description or revise items for sale.
Perform revisions or additions to item listings on my behalf similar to Revise Your Item.
* Leave feedback or display my feedback.
Perform feedback actions on my behalf such as leaving feedback or display my feedback.

For your security and protection, eBay requires your explicit consent before we will transfer any eBay transaction information to third parties. eBay strongly encourages you to read Auctiva Corporation's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy as their use of your eBay transaction information is controlled by those policies, and is not directly controlled by eBay.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you,
Auctiva Support

[leonid5000]

Originally Posted by AndreasF

From what I have seen during the last couple of weeks, it seems that ebay logs IP as soon as you log into your ac.

Take care,

if you open email from ebay they use this bug that looks like a small image in the bottom of the email .. so use Outlook Express and select read text only in the program then it will block it. use this if you chek email from your suspended ip .. bug is cheking for ip if you are cheking email with your suspendet ip it will recordet. im from russia and ebay got russian programers in 2006 to setup this security system. And you know what they say dont f with russians. ;--) before they hired russian programers theyr system was retardet just like them.

[leonid5000]

if you open email from ebay they use this bug that looks like a small image in the bottom of the email .. so use Outlook Express and select read text only in the program then it will block it. use this if you chek email from your suspended ip .. bug is cheking for ip if you are cheking email with your suspendet ip it will recordet. im from russia and ebay got russian programers in 2006 to setup this security system. And you know what they say dont f with russians. ;--) before they hired russian programers theyr system was retardet just like them.