I just discovered via the Consumerist that Etsy.com enacted a really ugly privacy policy some little while ago. Which Etsy claims to have notified people about by email, but I certainly didn’t receive any such thing. And the new, much more exposed default privacy settings are opt-OUT, rather than opt-in. Charming.
So what’s new, by default?
- Full names of users who have provided them are available to anyone browsing the site and search engines.
- Your bookmarked favourites are available to anyone browsing the site and search engines.
- Anything you’ve bought via Etsy is visible to anyone browsing the site and search engines.
Check out the default privacy settings screen shot from my account:
I imagine this was done so that Etsy can get greater visibility for their clients’ products in search engines. Well and good, points to them wanting to get their customers more exposure. However, minus several million for doing it by exposing big chunks of buyers’ information by default! Better go to your Etsy privacy settings and adjust ‘em today if you haven’t already.
