RE: Do privacy promises follow corporate purchases?

In another article, it's reported that Borders' current privacy policy states that Borders could sell customer data ("In the event that Borders or all of its assets are acquired in such a transaction, customer information would be one of the transferred assets") -- and the legal issue therefore centered around the customers that provided their data to Borders before the "OK to sell data" language was added to Borders' privacy policy in 2008.  Bankruptcy judge has delayed IP assets sale to B&N because of this issue.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-borders-idUSTRE78L6KL20110922


-----Original Message-----
From: public-privacy-request@w3.org [mailto:public-privacy-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of SULLIVAN, BRYAN L
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:04 PM
To: David Singer
Cc: public-privacy (W3C mailing list)
Subject: Re: Do privacy promises follow corporate purchases?

That being the case (ie it was true, and they really followed through with such a careless position), I'm sure it would affect their customer loyalty (the Internet being a much more viable protest platform than we have ever had before, especially due to social networking). This would also largely nullify any privacy claims they made directly to their own customers.

Not a wise move.

Thanks,
Bryan Sullivan

On Sep 22, 2011, at 3:11 PM, "David Singer" <singer@apple.com> wrote:

> Discussion on slashdot:  
> 
> "To perhaps no one's surprise, Borders bookstore collected a ton of consumer information - such as personal data, including records of particular book and video sales - during its normal course of business. Such personal information Borders promised never to share without consumer consent. But now that the company is being sold off as part of its bankruptcy filing, all privacy promises are off. Reuters wrote this week that Barnes & Noble, which paid almost $14 million for Borders' intellectual assets (including customer information) at auction last week, said it should not have to comply with certain customer-privacy standards recommended by a third-party ombudsman.."
> 
> http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/09/22/1628243/Borders-Bust-Means-BampN-May-Get-Your-Shopping-History
> 
> David Singer
> Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.
> 
>

Received on Monday, 26 September 2011 07:05:27 UTC