There’s a story going around the internet about Ebay port scanning its visitors without any permission or even indication that it’s happening (without digging into the browser’s developer tools) - it’s absolutely true. But why are they doing it, and what is Ebay doing with the data it collects? I took a peek into the code to find out (adapted from this thread), and I’m sure what I found is only a small part of the full story. //

It’s not just Ebay scanning your ports, there is allegedly a network of 30,000 websites out there all working for the common aim of harvesting open ports, collecting IP addresses, and User Agents in an attempt to track users all across the web. And this isn’t some rogue team within Ebay setting out to skirt the law, you can bet that LexisNexis lawyers have thoroughly covered their bases when extending this service to their customers (at least in the U.S.).