For a full copy of Amazon's policy, click here. Reading between the lines: Amazon.com collects tracks and records many aspects of a customer's online experience, including what pages they search for and purchases they make. They will track information about calls made to customer service, emails sent to them, etc.. (So far, nothing unusual. ED) They track detailed click-stream data and info from cookies, such as user id and email address. They get personal information from other third parties, e.g. when a shipper notifies them of an address correction. Amazon.com states clearly "we are not in the business of selling [information about our customers] to others." Amazon.com will share personal information under limited circumstances: Where they provide a storefront for other businesses, they pass along the customer's information to the other business. [They would have to do that, otherwise the customer cannot get their products]. Information is shared with Agents. [A term not clearly defined and open to whatever definition Amazon.com wants to give it]. The intent here is to allow the company to share information with sub-contractors who are working on Amazon.com's behalf to help Amazon fulfill its service to customers. [Although they could define Agents a little more clearly, it is understandable why their lawyers would want to avoid this]. Promotional offers - the policy states that they don't share personal information. However, they do contact customers on behalf of other companies. [Fair]. If they sell one of their "stores" they will sell customer data as an asset of the store. [This would allow them to sell their home improvement store, for example, and sell their customer profiles along with the store. This is the biggest problem with Amazon.com's new policy.] All other sharing is only with the customer's consent.
We think Amazon.com should be congratulated on trying to create a privacy policy that protects consumers while still giving the company the flexibility it needs to serve customers efficiently. What we don't like is the assertion that the company is happy to sell its customer's information as part of the sale of a store. We think Amazon should allow customers to prevent their data being passed on to a third party in this way. What do you think?Click here for our online opinion form or email us using this link: mailto:feedback@eretailnews.com Return to Privacy in eRetailing. FREE NEWSLETTER, click here |
