More on the Etsy mess

The Etsy privacy mess (which I ranted about a few weeks ago) is finally getting attention beyond the outrage that’s been boiling on Etsy’s own forums since January.

The bottom line is that Etsy — in a stupid attempt to become more of a social networking site than a buying-and-selling forum — has chosen to expose every person who ever used Etsy (and potentially many who haven’t, via idiots being encouraged to link their address books to the site). Sellers are mostly aware of this and are opting out. (I opted out, let all my listings lapse, and am looking into selling elsewhere.) But buyers — people who may have used Etsy once or twice years ago — have no idea that their identities and purchases are being exposed — and turning up prominently on Google.

And Etsy, in its typical fashion, is acting as though no problem exists. Etsy communication sucks even more than usual. (And it’s never been great.) Communication from Etsy goes like this: Don’t worry! Be happy! It’s all just Pure Wonderfulness! Look, you Lucky Damnfools! Etsy is Facebook! We’re going to make bazillions by exposing you and your “friends”! And you’ll just LOVE it! We’re SURE you will!

IF this people-search function is to exist at all (and it probably shouldn’t on a site that desperately needs to improve its merchandise search functions) it should be opt-in. Since it isn’t, if you’ve ever bought anything on Etsy, you should log in and opt-out. And tell any sellers you’ve purchased from not to link their address books to Etsy.

If you’ve bought only from me, at least your purchases have been pretty innocent and innocuous. We can pity the poor folk who bought — egads — “artisan dildoes” in the belief that their buys were confidential. Go. Opt out now. Nobody with the proverbial two brain cells to rub together will buy on Etsy again — at least until the current management team have all been busted down to burger-flipping and toilet-swabbing. Oh, but they’re underqualified for both those positions.

Somebody’s going to sue them over this. I hope it bankrupts their idiot asses.

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ADDED: Adam Brown of Etsy actually made an appearance here today, leaving a comment in my earlier post about Etsy saying that this problem has been solved. Etsy has now set all accounts to private by default. That’s certainly a serious step in the right direction. And the fact that an Etsy honcho is putting in appearances in obscure spots like this says they finally Got A Clue (albeit only after everybody from ArsTechnica to Salon and the NYTimes got on their case, repeating that term “artisan dildo” too many times for comfort).

Lisa, in the comment section of this blog entry gives the same link Brown left. I added some thoughts. I still think Etsy management is craven and completely wrong-headed in attempting to transform a once-decent marketplace into a mediocre social network. But give ’em this: they finally responded and took care of the immediate problem.