Copied below is an ebay announcement, from earlier this week. Under the new ebay procedures, after an auction goes above the $200 level, then people looking at the auction will not be able to see the ebay IDs for the bidders. Instead, we will only see "Bidder 1", "Bider 2", etc.

they say that they are doing this to protect bidders, so that they will not receive fraudulent offers, spam, etc.

My initial reaction is that this is a terrible thing. If we can't see the IDs of bidders, then

• we will not be able to see whether we are bidding against shills
  
• we will not be able to see whether we are bidding against (sniping) our friends
  
• we won't see who is winning the Heuers
  
• we won't see and develop relationships with other guys bidding for Heuers
  

Notice from ebay, January 8, 2007

A couple of months ago, I told you about an important new initiative called Safeguarding Member IDs (read my announcement from November 2, 2006). Safeguarding Member IDs (SMI) is a significant step forward in protecting eBay's bidders, who have increasingly become targets for unwanted commercial and malicious spam, such as phishing, spoof, and fake Second Chance Offers.

SMI adds a new layer of privacy by replacing specific User IDs with aliases (bidder 1, bidder 2, bidder 3, etc.). To ensure buyers continue to feel trust in the bidding process, SMI also provides an updated Bid History page with aggregate information about the bidders involved in a given listing, as well as their other recent activity with the listing's seller.

Coming this week: eBay.com and eBay Canada to Launch SMI

Following SMI's introduction last fall on eBay Motors, our eBay sites in the United Kingdom and Australia also made the decision to launch SMI. The results we're seeing for all three launches indicate that these changes are having the impact we are striving for – in short, a reduction in unwanted commercial and malicious spam (including Fake Second Chance Offers) to bidders on higher-priced auction-style listings.

As a result eBay.com and eBay.ca will be launching SMI later this week. SMI will impact listings on eBay.com that start at or reach a bid level of $200 or greater. On eBay Canada, it will impact listings above the C$220 level. Please read our Safeguarding Member IDs Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

Community Concerns

I'd like to acknowledge the concerns we've heard from some members who believe these changes may encourage shill bidding (the act of using friends or alias User IDs to bid on a seller's own listing to artificially increase the bidding level.) First, let me make it very clear that shill bidding is not tolerated on eBay. Not only is this activity prohibited by our policies (read our shill bidding policy), it is also a crime in many states.

In addition to the Bid History changes I've described above which are designed to give buyers the information they need to feel confident, it's important to know that over the years, eBay has invested heavily in shill detection systems. We can proactively detect and investigate possible shill bidding scenarios with a higher rate of accuracy than ever before. These backend systems collect more information on selling and bidding activity than our Community has access to, so we can detect patterns and ascertain identities much more accurately.

Be assured that we will continue to monitor the sites where SMI has launched to ensure that increased shill bidding does not become an unintended consequence of SMI.

I want to thank the Community for the support you've shown for these changes thus far. While reducing transparency on the site is understandably controversial, I believe these changes strike the right balance between the need for openness and the need to protect our members from online threats.

Sincerely,

Rob Chesnut

Senior Vice President, eBay Global Trust & Safety