eBay Australia has backed up controversial privacy claims made by the global director of law enforcement and compliance for eBay, but insists the online auction site obeys all Australian laws on the matter.

"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," Joseph Sullivan, eBay's director of law enforcement and compliance told the Cyber Crime 2003 conference according to Israel newspaper, Ha'aretz.

Sullivan reportedly told the conference that eBay is willing to provide personal information to authorities upon request and said subpoenas were only required for "exceptional circumstances". He claimed to have half a dozen investigators under contract who scrutinise suspicious users and behaviour.

Katrina Johnson, trust and safety director for eBay Australia, put a slightly different spin on eBay's policy and reiterated that the company obeyed all Australian privacy laws.

"We do take the privacy of our members' personal information seriously," said Johnson. "We're also committed to ensure they have the safest and most pleasant trading experience online."

She said eBay has a "zero tolerance for fraud" - an issue which has plagued the company for years - and would therefore cooperate with legitimate police action.

Claiming that 99.9 percent of transactions were successful, Johnson said that if there was a problem eBay Australia would cooperate with police, act as they could within the law and abide by the Privacy Act. She said that National Privacy Principle #2 allows for information to be handed over to relevant legal authorities for legitimate investigations.

"We have verification procedures to ensure it is a legitimate request and is part of a lawful investigation," said Johnson. "We also comply with any other requirements, which include how we disclose information. If they want an IP address, we need an official request on a police letterhead signed by an officer at Superintendent level or greater...for credit card details, [we] need a court order."

"We do comply with the Privacy Act in Australia, and we are a global company and want to maintain consistency between countries," she said. "From a legal perspective we do have the privacy act in Australia, which is different from the US, but the US (eBay) does have similar privacy policies."

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