A glitch on eBay's system Wednesday left bidders' email addresses exposed to the public. Users on newsgroups and chat forums began reporting the problem early Wednesday morning. When viewing an auction, the high bidder's email address appeared in parentheses next to the bidder's user ID. The problem left high bidders susceptible to email harvesters who scour eBay's Site for email addresses to use for marketing purposes.

The problem was announced on eBay's status board at 11:30 ET Wednesday morning. The announcement offered no explanation for the glitch, which occured during eBay's first "quiet period." From November 10 – December 31, 2002, eBay promised it would significantly minimize the release of new features, a move designed to disrupt the site as little as possible during one of the site's busiest periods.

eBay could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The announcement board said the issue "appeared to affect only certain listings, and did not appear on all item pages. No other information was being incorrectly displayed."