[privacy] Amazon Database Would Put Shoppers' Intimate Details at Risk

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

[snip]

Amazon.com is developing a system to gather and keep massive amounts of
intimate information about its millions of shoppers, including their
religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and income.

The database, which would combine information disclosed voluntarily by
customers with facts gleaned from public databases, conceivably would
give Amazon a larger or more detailed profile of its customers than any
other retailer.

The Seattle-based company, with 59 million active customers, said it
has no immediate plan to implement such a program. Its ability to do so
emerged in a detailed patent application with the U.S. Patent &
Trademark Office, disclosed Thursday.

A privacy expert said customers should be wary about Amazon having the
capability to gather such a large amount of detailed information.

[snip]

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/280894_amazon10.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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