Does eBay keep my ip for life

1. What “keep my IP for life” even means—and why eBay’s public docs matter

As a technical and legal claim, “keeps my IP for life” implies indefinite storage across all systems and geographies; eBay’s own public-facing privacy and consent materials show differentiated retention windows and use-cases instead: advertising partners list a one-year (365‑day) retention for data that can include IP addresses ^[1], while some eBay product privacy notes say IP-derived data used for geo‑location is discarded immediately for EEA users and analytics data can be deleted after months ^{[2] [3]}, demonstrating that retention is contextual and not uniformly permanent.

2. Where eBay uses IPs: security, geo, analytics and advertising

Multiple eBay documents and partner notices make clear that IPs are used for purposes like geo‑location, site personalization, analytics and advertising, and for enforcement or fraud detection; partner-configured retention windows tied to advertising often list 365 days, Google Analytics data has shorter deletion schedules in some eBay disclosures, and product pages list device and connection information including IP addresses as processed data ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. Operational reality: blacklists, association and enforcement—how IPs are used, not how long they’re kept

Seller communities and industry write‑ups consistently report that eBay and marketplace operators use IPs to detect multiple accounts, block known abusive addresses and enforce suspensions; community moderators and third‑party guides describe IP “blacklists” and account‑association systems that flag shared IP usage—but these sources describe enforcement practice and detection capability rather than an explicit corporate promise to retain IPs forever ^{[4] [5] [7]}.

4. Conflicting signals and limitations in the public record

Public-facing policies provide concrete retention periods in some contexts (e.g., 365 days for certain partner advertising data and shorter windows for analytics in EEA materials), yet other pages emphasize “used then discarded” for geo‑location in specific regions, and community reports emphasize that changing IPs is common and not automatically punitive ^{[1] [2] [8] [9]}. Crucially, none of the provided sources contain an unambiguous, company‑wide statement that eBay retains every user IP permanently, nor do they publish a single global retention schedule covering every backend system—this leaves room for regionally different practices and for retention by third‑party partners ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Practical takeaways and alternate viewpoints

The defensible conclusion from eBay’s own disclosures and industry reporting is that eBay collects and uses IP addresses for legitimate platform needs and that some uses are retained for months to about a year ^{[1] [3] [2]}, while operational accounts and third‑party guides warn that IPs contribute heavily to enforcement and account linking ^{[4] [5] [6]}. There is an alternative, privacy‑concerned narrative—promoted by VPN and privacy guides—that users should assume tracking and take steps to limit exposure—but those guides are advocacy and mitigation advice rather than primary evidence that eBay stores IPs indefinitely ^{[6] [10]}.

6. Final verdict, with caveats

No available public source in the provided reporting supports the absolute claim that “eBay keeps my IP for life”; instead, eBay and its partners explicitly document finite retention windows in multiple contexts (commonly months to a year) and describe immediate discard of IP data for specific uses and regions, while community and third‑party reporting documents strong operational use of IPs for enforcement—meaning users should assume their IP is logged and used but not necessarily stored forever across all systems ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.