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.