Etsy has decided to stop linking to purchased items in a user's feedback in response to the chorus of privacy concerns coming from its user base. In a blog post published Tuesday, Etsy CEO Rob Kalin and COO Adam Freed said that the company's recent rollout of the People Search tool, combined with public feedback, highlighted the need for a reworked feedback system, and that more changes may be on the way.

Etsy had flipped the switch on its new People Search tool last week as part of its effort to make the site into more of a social media platform. When users run a search for a person's full name, that user's account will show up in the search results, even if that person is only a buyer. The goal is to allow users to connect to each other and create "Circles," which then allow users to see which products their friends have marked as favorites or purchased on Etsy.

Problems immediately began popping up. For one, buyers who had entered their full names into their Etsy profiles in the past were not all aware that the information would become public as a result of the People Search rollout. (Etsy claims it notified users, but numerous Etsy users insisted otherwise.) Then, users began noticing that they could easily look up a buyer's past purchases by searching for their real names, pulling up their profile pages, and examining the feedback left for or by Etsy sellers. Feedback on Etsy has always been public, but the combination of real names plus public feedback suddenly thrust Etsy into the spotlight for not doing enough to protect buyer privacy.

Some critics pointed out that Etsy users who had not logged on in months—and undoubtedly did not agree to the new privacy policy—were having their information exposed. "I just found a woman who's Etsy profile comes up on Google as the 5th link. I was expecting 6 or 7 pages down, but it's on the very first page, right after her online resumes," wrote one concerned user on the Penny Arcade forums. "She signed up a year ago, under the old privacy policy, and hasn't logged in since 2010. And now I know what dildo she uses. Right down to the curvature and coloring."

After making an appearance in our discussion thread on the topic, Kalin told Ars in an e-mail that the company had decided to escalate and address the situation directly, resulting in Tuesday's blog post.

"There was an article published on ArsTechnica that made clear how direct the connection was between using your real name on Etsy, buying an item and receiving public feedback for that item," Kalin and Freed wrote. "The reaction to this article has made us realize that we need to change the way our Feedback system works, and this is what we’ve already done today."

The two went on to explain that the current feedback system dates back to a time when payment for purchased items was sent after the Etsy checkout process was complete. Like the olden days of eBay, users had to rely on public feedback in order to see whether other buyers and sellers were reliable, but this is no longer the case since Etsy now requires payment before completing checkout. As of today, buyer and seller feedback no longer link directly to purchased items and the site is considering further changes to the system to protect buyer privacy. (It's worth noting that they have not yet addressed user concerns about being automatically opted-into the People Search feature.)

"In the future, we may provide an option to share individual purchases publicly at the time of purchase. This will be completely opt-in and on a purchase-by-purchase basis," the team wrote.

The other element of concern from Etsy's community came from the staff's apparent unwillingness to take the privacy concerns seriously up to this point. A 120-page thread in Etsy's forums about the People Search rollout ended up getting locked, and another (now 32-page) thread that specifically asked about privacy went largely ignored. Kalin and Freed didn't directly address this, but did acknowledge that the community's trust is important to Etsy and that the company would be listening carefully to user feedback.

"We take privacy very seriously," the two wrote. "We are deeply sorry for any confusion and will work hard to regain your trust."

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