Amazon Reacts to Toysmart

September 11, 2000

Reacting to the Toysmart saga (see related story below), Amazon has revised its privacy policy, making it clear that it considers customer information an asset in which it is free to deal. Though the new Amazon.com privacy policy posted on its web site is rather long, long enough to discourage readers, the relevant new portion reads as follows:

"As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores or assets. In such transactions, customer information is generally one of the transferred business assets. Also, in the unlikely event that Amazon.com, Inc., or substantially all of its assets are acquired, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets."

At least Amazon.com customers can know where they stand. If Amazon.com wants to sell any information about customers, it is clearly reserving the right to do so.