FTC urged to restrict Amazon's handling of customer data

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Posted on 5 Dec 2000 at 11:53

Amazon.com is once again under fire for its handling of customers. Following on from charges of a discriminatory pricing policy, two US privacy groups are now campaigning to prevent the company making any disclosures of customer data unless shoppers themselves give permission.

The two groups, Junkbusters and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), have made an appeal to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which controls such matters.

The New York Times reports that, back in August, Amazon revised its privacy policy and now considers customer information as a saleable company asset. Apparently, an option for users to decline having their personal data given to third-parties was also removed at this time. The FTC, however, has intervened in the past when other retailers changed privacy policies to sell data.

Marc Rotenberg of EPIC dismissed reassurances from the company, over the use of personal data, by saying that Amazon shouldn't be the one to decide "which commitments it will honour and which it won't honour."

Author: Alun Williams