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When you're a full-fledged, officially registered member of the eBay community, you may see an eBay pop-up window, giving you the option to provide more information about yourself. These optional questions allow you to fill in your self-portrait for your new pals at eBay.
 | Although eBay doesn't share member information with anyone, you don't have to answer the optional questions if you don't want to. |
eBay asks for personal information because the company wants a better picture of who is using its Web site. In marketing mumbo-jumbo, this stuff is called demographics — statistics that characterize a group of people who make up a community. In this case, it's the eBay community. Here is the optional information you can provide:
- Gender: This first choice gets right down to the basics; some people find it a good test of whether the requests for information seem too personal.
- Annual household income: Fill this in if you want to (eBay states that this info is kept anonymous), but if you're not comfortable with it, skip it.
- Your highest completed education level: Again if this is too personal, leave this area blank.
After selecting your responses from the drop-down box, you can click Submit. If you're not in the mood right now, you can click the Answer Later link. (This pop-up box will reappear for your response later in your eBay dealings.) If you don't want to answer any of the demographic queries, click the Please Don't Ask Me Again link at the bottom of the pop-up window.
 | If somebody you're in a transaction with requests your info, you get an e-mail from eBay giving you the name, phone number, city, and state of the person making the request. Keep your information up to date. If you don't, you risk being banished from the site. |
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