Service with a Smile

The Nation reports that eBay officials have been bragging about their company's exceptionally "flexible" privacy policy:

If you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details–all without having to produce a court order. […] Tell us what you want to ask the bad guys. We'll send them a form, signed by us, and ask them your questions. We will send their answers directly to your e-mail.

How extraordinarily solicitous of them. Though in the immortal words of Shel Silverstein, some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without.