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eBay Biometric Information Privacy Policy

This Biometric Information Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) is applicable to users residing in the United States of America. 

In addition to the information we’ve provided you in our User Privacy Notice, we want to help you better understand how eBay collects and treats biometric information. eBay cares about the security of your personal information and seeks to protect you and us against fraud. Where permitted by law, eBay and certain of our service providers use ID scanning and facial recognition technology to verify your identity and safeguard personal information as part of our security, compliance, and fraud prevention efforts. This notice more specifically describes our collection and use of biometric data.

Biometric Data

When we refer to “biometric data,” we mean information about your physical or biological characteristics (sometimes called “biometric identifiers”) that identify you. Information like eye, hand, or face scans; fingerprints; and voiceprints may be considered biometric data if they are being used to identify you by technical means. The definitions of biometric data vary under different states’ laws. For example, some states’ biometric laws don’t apply to driver’s license photos. Photos of you are not biometric data, but biometric data can be made from processing the photo using certain technology.

As used in this policy, “biometric data” includes “biometric identifiers” and “biometric information”. “Biometric identifier” means a retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry. Biometric identifiers do not include writing samples, written signatures, photographs, human biological samples used for valid scientific testing or screening, demographic data, tattoo descriptions, or physical descriptions such as height, weight, hair color, or eye color.

“Biometric information” means any information based on an individual’s biometric identifier used to identify an individual by technical means.

Information Collected

When you consent to eBay’s use of your biometric data, eBay (or service providers, such as technology vendors, working on our behalf) collects face scan information—face geometry information and related information—necessary to accomplish the purposes stated in this Policy, at points of collection, and/or in our User Privacy Notice. eBay does not collect, use, store, or disclose your biometric data without your consent.

Purposes

We use your biometric data to verify or authenticate your identity, to detect and prevent fraud, in furtherance of compliance with applicable anti-money laundering and sanctions screening obligations, and to enable you to regain access to your account (account recovery). Subject to the storage and retention guidelines below, we store and use your biometric data for these purposes for the duration of your engagement with us or as otherwise permitted by law.

Disclosure of Biometric Data

Unless otherwise required by law, your biometric data is accessible only to us and our service providers, which process your data only on our behalf to accomplish the purposes above. We do not share biometric data with any other third parties unless required by law. We do not sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from the biometric data. We may disclose your biometric data to our authorized service providers or other third parties if:

  • You or your authorized representative consent to the disclosure (for example, by selecting “Ready to Verify” to verify identity using a photo of yourself and a ID);
  • the disclosure completes a financial transaction requested or authorized by you or your authorized representative;
  • the disclosure is required pursuant to a valid warrant, subpoena, or court order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction; or
  • the disclosure is required by law.

Retention and Storage

eBay will collect, store, transmit, and protect your biometric data using a reasonable standard of care that is at least as protective as the way eBay collects, stores, transmits, and protects other confidential and sensitive personal information.

Unless otherwise required by an order from a court of competent jurisdiction or applicable law, eBay will only retain biometric data until: (i) the initial purpose for collecting the biometric data has been satisfied, or (ii) for three years following your last interaction with eBay, whichever occurs first, unless legally required to keep it for a different period. 

For any questions regarding eBay’s use of biometric data or other privacy inquiries, please submit a request to our privacy team.

Revision 2. Effective Date May 15, 2024