Users of the Internet's largest auction site expressed anger at the company Tuesday after being told that a software error affected their registration forms and the company reset them to request periodic e-mails from the company.
The users, believing eBay might be ignoring their requests to refuse unwanted e-mail, also known as "spam," criticized the firm in sharp comments on an Internet bulletin board.
An eBay spokesman said Tuesday the problem occurred with six million users who registered between April and November of last year.
New users have to "opt out" of e-mail from the company, which includes administrative messages about auctions and news about special offers and events. But users who registered during those months had some options clicked off -- meaning they would not receive the mail -- when they were supposed to be on.
"We are concerned that many people who signed up during that period of time that they might not be getting all the e-mail that they do want," said eBay's Kevin Pursglove.
"What we've done here in the past several weeks is send individuals e-mails who were directly affected by eBay's screw-ups," Pursglove said. "This may be an inconvenience to those users, and for that we apologize."
After seeing criticism of the company online, Pursglove said the company will review the e-mail again to see how the effort could be better explained to users.
The company consulted with TRUSTe, a group that certifies privacy policies online, and other privacy consultants after discovering the glitch.
As of September 2000, eBay had 18.9 million registered users, according to the company.<
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