Effective Date: May 20, 2026
Introduction
Welcome to eBay Official Site (ebayusa.com). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring transparency about how we collect, use, and safeguard your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains our practices regarding data collection and processing when you visit our website, browse listings, make purchases, or interact with our global marketplace of over 1.7 billion live listings across 190+ markets.
eBay has been connecting buyers and sellers worldwide since 1995, and we understand that trust is fundamental to our community. This policy applies to all users who access ebayusa.com, whether you’re shopping for electronics, cars, fashion, collectibles, motors parts, golf clubs, jewelry, watches, motorcycles parts, tires, shoes, sneakers, laptops, furniture, guitars, perfume, Hot Wheels, VHS tapes, DVDs, e-bikes, or any of the thousands of items available on our platform.
By using ebayusa.com, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our practices, please discontinue use of our services immediately. We encourage you to review this policy periodically as we may update it to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements.
What Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide you with a seamless shopping experience and to maintain the integrity of our marketplace:
Personal Identification Information: When you create an account, make a purchase, or contact customer support, we collect information such as your name, email address, phone number, shipping address, billing address, and payment information including credit card details. This information is essential for processing transactions, shipping items to you, and communicating about your orders.
Transaction Data: We record details of your purchases, bids, sales, browsing history, search queries, watchlists, saved items, and interactions with sellers. This data includes product categories you explore, items you view, prices you pay, and feedback you leave for sellers. Our system tracks your participation in auctions, Buy It Now purchases, and best offer negotiations.
Device and Technical Information: We automatically collect information about the devices you use to access ebayusa.com, including IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, device identifiers, screen resolution, and mobile network information. We also gather data about your internet connection, access times, pages viewed, and the referring websites that directed you to our platform.
Location Data: With your permission, we may collect precise geolocation information from your mobile device to provide location-based services such as local pickup options, nearby sellers, or region-specific deals. Even without explicit permission, we approximate your location using IP address data to customize your experience and display relevant listings.
Communications: We retain records of your correspondence with our customer support team at support@ebayusa.com or through our phone line at 1-866-540-3229, including emails, chat transcripts, and call recordings. We also track your communication preferences for marketing emails, promotional offers, and transaction notifications.
User-Generated Content: Any reviews, ratings, seller feedback, forum posts, or comments you submit become part of our database. When you rate products, provide detailed seller ratings on aspects like item description accuracy and shipping speed, or participate in our community discussions, that content is associated with your account.
Social Media Information: If you choose to connect your eBay account with social media platforms or sign in using social media credentials, we may receive information from those platforms according to their privacy policies and your privacy settings on those services.
Payment Information: While we process payments through our secure managed payments system using 256-bit encryption, we collect billing information, payment method details, and transaction history. Credit card numbers are tokenized and never shared directly with individual sellers, but we maintain encrypted records for fraud prevention and dispute resolution.
Use of Information
We use the collected information for multiple legitimate business purposes that enhance your experience and maintain marketplace integrity:
Transaction Processing: Your personal and payment information enables us to process over $73.9 billion in annual gross merchandise volume, coordinate shipments between our 19 million active sellers and 132 million active buyers, facilitate refunds under our Money Back Guarantee, and maintain accurate financial records.
Platform Improvement: We analyze browsing patterns, search queries, and purchase behavior to optimize our website design, improve search algorithms, recommend relevant products, and develop new features. This data-driven approach helps us serve our 190+ markets more effectively and expand our 50+ shopping categories.
Seller Performance Monitoring: We use transaction data to enforce our Seller Performance Standards, tracking metrics like transaction defect rates (which must remain below 2%) and late shipment rates (required under 5%). This ensures that our Top Rated Seller program recognizes consistently reliable merchants.
Fraud Prevention and Security: Our security systems monitor for suspicious activity, unauthorized access attempts, payment fraud, and policy violations. We employ machine learning algorithms that analyze transaction patterns across our 1.7 billion live listings to identify potential scams, counterfeit items, or prohibited merchandise.
Communication: We send transactional emails about order confirmations, shipping updates, delivery notifications, and account changes. We also provide customer support responses, answer inquiries about listings, and notify you about bid status, auction endings, or price changes on watched items.
Marketing and Personalization: With your consent, we deliver targeted advertisements, promotional offers, category-specific deals, and personalized recommendations based on your interests. If you frequently browse eBay Golf Clubs or eBay Fashion, we’ll highlight relevant new arrivals, sales, and curated collections.
Legal Compliance: We use your information to comply with tax regulations, respond to legal requests from law enforcement, enforce our Terms & Conditions, investigate violations, protect intellectual property rights, and maintain records required by financial regulations governing e-commerce platforms.
Analytics and Research: Aggregated, anonymized data helps us understand market trends, popular product categories, seasonal shopping patterns, and regional preferences. This research informs business decisions about category expansion, international market development, and strategic partnerships.
Third-Party Disclosure
We share your information with select third parties under specific circumstances, always maintaining strict controls to protect your privacy:
Service Providers: We partner with companies that perform essential functions on our behalf, including payment processors that handle credit card transactions, shipping carriers that deliver packages, cloud hosting providers that maintain our servers, email delivery services that send notifications, and fraud detection specialists who analyze suspicious patterns. These providers access only the information necessary to perform their services and are contractually obligated to protect your data.
Sellers: When you make a purchase, we share your name, shipping address, and contact information with the seller fulfilling your order. Sellers need this information to package, ship, and communicate about your purchase. However, payment details remain encrypted and are never directly accessible to individual sellers.
Business Partners: We collaborate with advertising networks, analytics companies, and marketing platforms to deliver relevant ads, measure campaign effectiveness, and understand user behavior across devices. These partners may use cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies to collect information about your interactions with our site and others.
Legal Requirements: We disclose information when required by law, such as responding to subpoenas, court orders, or government investigations. We also share data to enforce our Terms & Conditions, protect our rights, prevent fraud, ensure safety, investigate policy violations, or defend against legal claims.
Business Transfers: If eBay undergoes a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred to the successor organization. We will notify you of any such change and how it affects your data.
Aggregate Information: We share anonymized, statistical data that cannot identify individual users with business partners, researchers, and the public. For example, we might publish reports about overall marketplace trends, popular product categories, or average transaction values without revealing personal information.
With Your Consent: In situations not covered above, we will seek your explicit permission before sharing your information with third parties for purposes like co-branded promotions, partner offers, or special programs.
We do not sell your personal information to data brokers, list rental companies, or other third parties for their independent marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
Cookie Usage
Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance functionality and personalize your experience:
Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for basic website operation, including maintaining your logged-in session, remembering items in your shopping cart, enabling secure payments, and ensuring proper page loading. You cannot opt out of essential cookies without impairing core functionality.
Performance Cookies: We use analytics cookies to understand how visitors interact with ebayusa.com, which pages receive the most traffic, where users spend time, and where they encounter difficulties. This information helps us optimize site performance, fix bugs, and improve navigation.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies remember your preferences, such as language selection, currency display, layout choices, and saved searches. They enable features like recently viewed items, watchlist synchronization across devices, and personalized homepages.
Advertising Cookies: Marketing cookies track your browsing across our site and partner websites to deliver relevant advertisements. If you search for eBay Motorcycles Parts, you might see related ads for motorcycle accessories when visiting other websites. These cookies also help measure ad campaign effectiveness and limit how often you see the same advertisement.
Third-Party Cookies: Our advertising and analytics partners may place their own cookies on your device to track engagement, attribute conversions, and build audience profiles for targeted advertising across their networks.
You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings, but disabling certain cookies may limit website functionality. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, set alerts when cookies are being sent, or limit third-party cookies while allowing first-party ones.
Our platform also respects “Do Not Track” signals where legally required, though industry standards for interpreting these signals continue to evolve. Mobile app users can manage tracking through device settings like iOS’s App Tracking Transparency or Android’s advertising ID controls.
External Links
Our website contains links to external resources that are not operated by eBay:
Third-Party Websites: Product listings may include links to manufacturer websites, seller storefronts, product manuals, warranty registration pages, or related resources. Our blog and educational content might reference industry publications, news articles, or partner sites. When you click these links, you leave ebayusa.com and enter websites governed by different privacy policies.
Social Media: Our footer includes links to our social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. These platforms have their own privacy practices that control how they collect and use information about your interactions with our content.
Affiliate Links: Some outbound links may be affiliated, meaning we receive a commission if you make a purchase through that link. These relationships do not affect our privacy practices or the destination site’s privacy policy.
Seller Links: Individual sellers may maintain separate websites or social media pages linked from their eBay profiles. These sites are independently operated and not subject to our Privacy Policy.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or security of external websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit before providing personal information. We cannot control how other websites collect, use, or share your data, nor can we guarantee their security measures or business practices.
While we strive to partner with reputable companies and only link to legitimate resources, the inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement of that site’s privacy practices or business conduct.
Security Measures
We implement comprehensive security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction:
Encryption: All sensitive data transmitted between your device and our servers uses industry-standard SSL/TLS encryption with 256-bit encryption keys. Payment information is tokenized, meaning actual credit card numbers are replaced with random identifiers that are useless if intercepted.
Access Controls: Our employees and contractors access personal information only on a need-to-know basis, using unique credentials and authentication systems. We conduct background checks on personnel with data access, provide privacy training, and enforce strict confidentiality agreements.
Network Security: Our infrastructure includes firewalls, intrusion detection systems, malware protection, and regular vulnerability scanning. We segment sensitive data from publicly accessible systems and maintain separate test environments that don’t contain real customer information.
Monitoring: We continuously monitor our systems for suspicious activity, unauthorized access attempts, unusual traffic patterns, and potential breaches. Our security team investigates alerts, responds to incidents, and maintains logs for forensic analysis.
Data Minimization: We collect only the information necessary for specified purposes and delete or anonymize data when no longer needed. Regular audits ensure we’re not retaining excessive information or storing data longer than required.
Vendor Management: Third-party service providers undergo security assessments before gaining access to our systems or data. We require contractual commitments to security standards, conduct periodic audits, and limit data sharing to what’s operationally necessary.
Incident Response: We maintain a comprehensive incident response plan that includes detection protocols, containment procedures, investigation processes, notification requirements, and remediation steps. In the event of a data breach affecting your information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.
Physical Security: Our data centers employ physical access controls, including biometric authentication, security cameras, locked server rooms, and 24/7 monitoring. We use reputable hosting providers with SOC 2 certification and compliance with industry standards.
Despite our security measures, no method of electronic storage or internet transmission is completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security against determined attackers or unforeseeable vulnerabilities.
User Rights and Choices
You have significant control over your personal information and how we use it:
Access and Portability: You can request a copy of the personal information we maintain about you, including account details, transaction history, and communications. We provide this data in a structured, commonly used format that allows you to transfer it to another service if desired.
Correction and Updates: You can update your account information, shipping addresses, payment methods, and contact preferences through your account settings at any time. If you notice inaccurate information we’ve collected, you can request corrections.
Deletion: You may request deletion of your account and associated personal information, subject to exceptions for legal obligations, dispute resolution, fraud prevention, or enforcing our Terms & Conditions. Some information may be retained in backup systems or aggregated data that cannot identify you individually.
Marketing Opt-Out: You can unsubscribe from promotional emails by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing message or adjusting preferences in your account settings. Even after opting out of marketing communications, you’ll continue receiving transactional emails about purchases, account changes, and customer support interactions.
Cookie Management: As described in our Cookie Usage section, you can control cookie preferences through browser settings, opt out of interest-based advertising through industry tools like the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or use browser extensions that block tracking technologies.
Objection to Processing: You can object to certain uses of your information, such as profiling for marketing purposes or automated decision-making that significantly affects you. We will honor your objection unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing.
Data Restriction: In some circumstances, you can request that we limit how we use your information while disputes are resolved or accuracy is verified.
To exercise these rights, contact our privacy team at support@ebayusa.com or call 1-866-540-3229. We will respond to verified requests within the timeframes required by applicable law, typically 30-45 days. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling requests to prevent unauthorized access to your information.
Protection of Minors
Our services are not directed to children under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors:
Age Restrictions: Our Terms & Conditions require users to be at least 18 years old or the age of majority in their jurisdiction. Accounts are intended for adults who can enter legally binding contracts.
Parental Consent: If we discover that we’ve collected information from a child without parental consent, we will delete that information promptly. Parents or guardians who believe their child has provided personal information to us should contact support@ebayusa.com immediately.
Monitoring: While we don’t proactively verify ages for all users, we investigate reports of underage account holders and terminate accounts that violate our age requirements.
Family Accounts: Parents who wish to allow supervised shopping for minors should create their own account and conduct transactions on behalf of the child, maintaining control over payment methods and personal information.
We encourage parents to monitor their children’s internet usage and teach them about online privacy. Consider using parental control software, restricting device access to supervised times, and discussing the importance of not sharing personal information online without permission.
CCPA Compliance
For California residents, we comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which provides additional privacy rights:
Right to Know: You can request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we’ve collected, the sources of that information, our business purposes for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share data.
Right to Delete: You can request deletion of your personal information, subject to exceptions for completing transactions, detecting fraud, exercising free speech rights, complying with legal obligations, or other purposes specified in the CCPA.
Right to Opt-Out: While we do not sell personal information in the traditional sense, the CCPA’s broad definition of “sale” may include sharing data with advertising partners. You can opt out of this sharing through our “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link.
Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights by denying services, charging different prices, providing different service levels, or suggesting you’ll receive inferior experiences.
Authorized Agents: You may designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf by providing written authorization and verifying your identity.
Categories of Information: Over the past 12 months, we have collected identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, geolocation data, professional information (for sellers), and inferences drawn from this data. We’ve shared these categories with service providers, business partners, and sellers as described in our Third-Party Disclosure section.
To exercise your CCPA rights, contact us at support@ebayusa.com or call our toll-free number at 1-866-540-3229. We will verify your identity through information we already have on file and respond within 45 days, with a possible 45-day extension if needed.
GDPR Compliance
For users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland, we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
Legal Basis: We process personal information based on several legal grounds: performance of our contract with you (processing transactions, providing services), compliance with legal obligations (tax records, fraud prevention), legitimate interests (security, product improvement), and your consent (marketing communications, optional features).
Data Controller: eBay USA (ebayusa.com) acts as the data controller for information collected through our platform, determining purposes and means of processing.
Cross-Border Transfers: When we transfer data from the EU/UK to the United States or other countries, we use approved mechanisms such as Standard Contractual Clauses, adequacy decisions, or other legally recognized safeguards to ensure appropriate protection.
Data Protection Officer: You can contact our Data Protection Officer regarding privacy concerns, GDPR compliance questions, or to exercise your rights by emailing support@ebayusa.com with “DPO Inquiry” in the subject line.
Enhanced Rights: In addition to rights described in our User Rights section, GDPR provides the right to lodge complaints with your local data protection authority if you believe we’ve violated your privacy rights.
Automated Decision-Making: We use automated systems for fraud detection, seller performance monitoring, and personalized recommendations. You have the right to request human review of decisions that significantly affect you, though fraud prevention measures may be exempt from this requirement.
Consent Withdrawal: Where we rely on consent as our legal basis, you can withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
Privacy by Design: We implement privacy-protective measures throughout our product development lifecycle, incorporating data minimization, encryption, access controls, and privacy impact assessments for new features.
For GDPR-related requests or concerns, contact our privacy team at support@ebayusa.com. We will respond within one month, with possible extensions to two additional months for complex requests.
How Long We Keep Your Information
We retain personal information for different periods depending on the type of data and purpose for collection:
Account Information: We maintain your account profile, contact details, and preferences for as long as your account remains active. After account closure, we retain certain information for up to seven years to comply with tax regulations, resolve disputes, enforce our Terms & Conditions, and prevent fraud.
Transaction Records: Purchase history, payment information, and shipping details are kept for seven years to support tax reporting, warranty claims, dispute resolution, and legal compliance. Financial regulations require us to maintain records that document business transactions and support accounting practices.
Communications: Customer support interactions, emails, and chat transcripts are typically retained for three years to provide consistent service, train support staff, and resolve recurring issues. Call recordings may be kept for shorter periods unless involved in disputes.
Marketing Data: Information used for promotional communications is retained until you opt out or your account is closed, at which point we anonymize or delete the data within 90 days.
Technical Logs: Server logs, access records, and security monitoring data are generally kept for one year to detect threats, investigate incidents, and optimize performance. Logs related to security incidents may be retained longer.
Legal Hold: If your information is subject to litigation, government investigations, or legal preservation requests, we retain it until the matter concludes and any appeal periods expire.
Anonymized Data: After personal identifiers are removed, aggregated data may be retained indefinitely for analytics, research, and business intelligence that cannot identify individual users.
We periodically review our retention practices and delete information that no longer serves a legitimate business purpose, legal requirement, or defense need. Automated systems help us enforce retention policies across our infrastructure.
Policy Updates
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or business operations:
Notification: When we make material changes, we will notify you by posting a prominent notice on ebayusa.com, sending an email to your registered address, or displaying a notification when you log in. For significant changes affecting how we use personal information, we may seek your renewed consent.
Effective Date: The effective date at the top of this policy indicates when the current version became operative. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.
Prior Versions: We maintain an archive of previous privacy policy versions available upon request, allowing you to review historical practices and track changes over time.
Continued Use: Your continued use of ebayusa.com after policy updates constitute acceptance of the revised terms. If you disagree with changes, you should discontinue using our services and close your account.
Material Changes: We consider changes material if they expand data collection, introduce new sharing practices, reduce your rights, or significantly alter our security measures. Minor updates like formatting changes, clarifications, or additions of new contact methods typically don’t require special notice.
We recommend reviewing this Privacy Policy at least annually to understand current practices. Bookmark this page or save the link for easy reference: https://ebayusa.com/privacy-policy
Privacy Questions
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, we provide multiple contact channels:
Email: Send detailed inquiries to support@ebayusa.com with “Privacy Question” in the subject line. Our privacy team reviews these messages and responds within 5-10 business days.
Phone: Call our toll-free customer support line at 1-866-540-3229 during business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM Pacific Time). Representatives can address immediate concerns or escalate complex privacy matters to specialized teams.
Mail: Write to our privacy office at:
eBay USA Privacy Team
2025 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
USA