It has come to our attention, and has been confirmed, that eBay has a new policy whereby they may add your photos to a ‘catalog’ for other users to use in their listings (but will attribute the photos to you with a link to your user page).

PC-Mole thinks this policy will ultimately hurt eBay, depending on which photos they choose to share.  If they take ‘home taken’ photos, then people may assume that the photos are of the actual item they are bidding on, and be dissapointed when the item arrives.  However, if eBay is judicious in which photos they decide to open up to other eBay-ers, the policy will actually make eBay easier to use, providing photos for those who either don’t have a camera, or are just too lazy to upload their own photos.

eBay mentioned this policy change briefly in an email on July 27th.  The new policy officially goes into effect on August 31st.  The small notice is a little unfortunate, but PC-Mole still thinks eBay is cool, “We forgive you eBay!”.  If you aren’t a professional photographer who sells his/her photos, you don’t need to be concerned.  You’ll even get a little free advertising!  However, if you want to keep your photos to yourself, here’s how to opt-out of the new program:

1.  Log into your eBay account and go to ‘My eBay‘ via the ‘My eBay’ tab in the upper-right corner of the page.

2.  Move your mouse cursor over to the account button, but don’t click it.  A menu of options appears.

3.  Click the ‘Site Preferences’ option.

Move your mouse cursor over the 'Account' button, then click 'Site Preferences'

4.  You’ll see a list of settings.  Find the one that says ‘Share your photos’ and click the corresponding ‘Show’ button on the right side of the page.

5.  You should now see the text ‘Consider photos I upload in the listing process for inclusion in the eBay product catalog and other product offerings. Yes’ in the ‘Share your photos’ box.

6.  If there is a ‘No’ where the ‘Yes’ should be in the

text, then you’re good to go, and eBay won’t share your photos with others; if not, proceed to step 7

7.  Click the ‘Edit’ button directly under the ‘Show’ button you clicked earlier (it should be on the right side of the page).

8.  Check the little box with your mouse, and then click ‘Submit’.

You’re done!