quote:
Originally posted by Sniper Sara B.:
You get email? Everyone does. Password sent in the clear, has been for since day one.
Secure authentication is now a common standard feature in most email clients and on most servers;
secure login is also becoming common, even on Yahoo, for example, and of course on eBay.
I must tell you that I refrained from registering at AS for six months, just because my browser indicated that AS did not even
seem able to construct a correctly secured "subscribe" page -- I don't write this as criticism, but just to indicate that there are people who take this issue seriously, and who will not become (or remain) customers if they are not convinced that the companies they deal with are being careful enough, because this "identity theft" thing is very damaging, if it ever happens to you.
Also, no matter what the past has been like, we now know that, for example, every Computer Science student here is probably monitoring network traffic and getting passwords -- one of our CS professors even tells us that he's got most of the passwords for everyone in our university, which impresses us with it being a good idea to close up any previously loose ends (as you know, Microsoft is smarting greatly from the perpetual embarrassment of their past, non-rigorous programming).
So I write to suggest that AS management simply keep it in mind to plug any loopholes, if there are any. I'm sure that AS doesn't deserve flames or heavy criticism, but at the same time, it's better not to respond so defensively.
Meanwhile, though I've been using AS for merely a couple of days, I can see that it is so well done; it's probably blowing away all competitors.
Don't lose your cool, Sara B; just take in any information that comes, appreciate the customers' concerns, and help AS to become even better.
Afer all, the only thing that could really be bad for AS (and its imitators) is if eBay were to fix its own fundamentally flawed auction and bidding rules, so as to eliminate the ability to snipe!
(and to allow a "max bid" to be lowered to the amount of a current bid) -- so just concentrate on making sure that eBay never does things right, which will perpetuate the need for AS to exist!
Peace be with you, and with all of us.
