Etsy News – Make Your Purchases Private
31. Aug, 2010 
11 Comments
PRIVATE upcycled license plate sign on barn wood | By: tomboyART
Etsy admin announced today that they are
sean11 says:
We’re introducing a new Privacy tab in the Account section of Your Etsy for managing the information you expose publicly on the site.
With this enhancement we will give you the option to make your purchase history private.
Purchases are currently public on Etsy by way of our feedback system. Etsy’s feedback system will be modified as necessary to allow members to make their purchases private if they choose to do so.
If you choose to make your purchases private, the feedback you leave for shop owners will not display the item you purchased or your username. The feedback shop owners leave for you will be anonymized in a similar way.
Feedback pages will be simplified, and contain two types of feedback: feedback left for the member as a buyer, and feedback left for the member as a shop owner.
The feedback system will remain the same in all other respects. Feedback ratings and feedback text will continue to be visible to everyone.
If you have questions, please post in this thread:
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Sometimes I click on the items purchased by my buyers and and look at the items that seller is selling…it opens up a whole new area that I probably wouldn’t find just searching….I will miss that if everything goes private.
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I love this idea. I don’t like the feedback system as it is … ( I’ll just let the rest of that thought be … umm… private ).
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I agree with you!
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I personally think this is a bad idea for a few reasons. First, if a buyer’s name isn’t listed on the feedback page (if they choose private), then I’m afraid people might be more open to leaving negative instead of trying to work it out, etc. No one can see who it is, so people may be more bold. Secondly, I have looked at feedback before w/ people who have a few negatives and noticed that while one item may have negatives, the item I want to purchase has all positives. If they take away the actual item purchased in the feedback(if marked private), it will all be lumped together and hard to sort through in shops. Hope this makes sense!
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Great points Traci…. Things to consider for sure! Thanks for the comment!
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I agree with Traci. If a buyer become anonymous, I’m afraid that they are going to become more apt to leave negative feedback as opposed to going directly to the seller to resolve the situation. I think the privacy removes some small aspect of accountability between both the buyer and the seller.
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A seller pointed out to me that people can see what you, as another seller, bought on Etsy and how much it cost. Some sellers actually have a separate buying account t avoid this – it never occurred to me but they might have a point. I can’t buy a lot of my supplies here in New Zealand so I HAVE to get them from Etsy and the US.
I really would not mind having my purchases private as Etsy is the only place I can get some of my supplies and I don’t want people saying ‘Why is this X amount when the Y only cost that” etc., etc.,
I would not think it suspicious if someone hid their purchases. I would respect their privacy.
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There are reasons for and against, as long as privacy doesn’t encourage people to take advantage of anonymity and leave spiteful or misleading feedback as per Traci’s reply. I also like to see what people have sold as an aid to identify trends in what people are buying.
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I agree with Traci. It does leave a door open to less than flattering feedback.
As a buyer, I would like to make my purchases private.
As a seller, sometimes feedback is the only way I know someone has received and is happy with their purchase. If it was anonymous, I would never know who received what and when.
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It will only be good if it can be controlled by item instead of by account.
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I agree with Marjorie’s comment above. I constantly have people asking where I get particular items. Some of my items I searched HIGH & LOW and found only on Etsy. I’m with the privacy.
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