More Privacy

October 30, 2000 - Update

There has been a new turn in the case against More.com.

More.com has agreed to let HealthCentral.com purchase its entire business which includes More.com’s customer list, which is already the issue in controversy in a pending lawsuit. As reported when the suit arose, More.com has a policy that states that they will not sell any of their customer’s information to third parties.

No suit has been filed regarding this purchase of More.com by HealthCentral.com but many have argued that if HealthCentral.com receives access to More.com’s customer list then that is a violation of More.com’s privacy policy because a third party will have obtained access. However, More.com and HealthCentral.com argue that this is an outright purchase of the entire business; therefore, More.com will not be violating its privacy policy because HealthCentral.com would be considered a “successor in interest” and not a third party.

In the recent Toysmart.com case, the FTC held that Toysmart.com could sell the customer list to a “successor in interest” who was not only purchasing the list but also the entire web site and business. That case is still pending in bankruptcy court.

In the case of More.com, this issue is even more controversial because the customer list contains health information - i.e. people’s drug prescriptions, eyewear prescriptions - and anytime that someone’s health information is shared, consumers want a say in how that information is distributed.

September 18, 2000 - Original Posting

There have been numerous lawsuits filed alleging violations of personal privacy when a company has sold someone's personal data to a third party. And the end result sometimes goes against the company because that company had violated its own terms and conditions.

However, companies marketing on the Internet are getting a little smarter. Savvy Internet operations state what they are going to sell to third parties and what they are not going to sell to third parties. For example, More.com is in the midst of a suit where it is claimed that it sold personal information to a third party in violation of its own privacy terms and conditions. It is true that More.com had a privacy policy that restricted it from selling customers’ personal information to third parties. However, the issue at hand is whether More.com also had a disclaimer that informed customers that it did share customer data with third party partners.

There are few laws in place that restrict the of selling personal information to third parties. If More.com did have a clear disclaimer statement that informed customers of sharing with third party partners, then it acted within its legal rights.

The Moral of the Story: Make sure your privacy policy is as clear as possible and worded to protect you.