Amazon Privacy Blowout

IRCE 2008 Conference Multi-Media CD-ROM

Junkbusters Corp., a privacy advocacy firm that helps people get rid of junk messages of all kinds, is dropping its affiliate agreement to sell books through online retail giant Amazon.com because of Amazonās change in privacy policy. Junkbustersā Chief Executive Jason Catlett this week wrote a letter to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos complaining about the web siteās new privacy policy that no longer gives consumers the option to have their personal information not be sold to marketers. Catlettās letter suggested Amazon.com change its policy to meet the following requirements: ć(1) to undertake to disclose information about the customer only with the customerās affirmative consent or as required by law, (2) to provide each customer on request with all information held by Amazon about the customer, and (3) to delete all personal information held about the customer on request.ä Other privacy groups, including Privacy International in the United Kingdom and the Washington D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, also have complained. The latter also has decided not to sell books through Amazon.comās affiliate program.