McAfee fixes eBay glitch

Security software and services company McAfee is set to release a patch Friday to fix a glitch that prevented some users of its privacy software from accessing auction site eBay.

Ardi Kazarian, senior product manager for McAfee Internet Security, said the problem popped up a few weeks ago, after eBay apparently changed some of its home page elements that run in the JavaScript language.

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McAfee's Privacy Service software would occasionally misinterpret the JavaScript routine and block access to the page, Kazarian said. "It's just not looking at it correctly," she said.

Privacy Service is a set of tools intended to protect information stored on a PC from being exploited over the Internet. The software blocks cookies and advertising pop-ups and allows parents to block access to sites inappropriate for children.

Kazarian said the eBay glitch only affected a small minority of Privacy Service users, making it more difficult to isolate the problem. She said McAfee engineers were doing final testing on the patch Friday and expected to have it available for download from McAfee's Web site late in the day.

An eBay representative could not be reached for comment.