IP: Amazon informing customers that the information they give is considered a company asset that can be sold

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Amazon.com -- apparently forgetting for the moment that it's currently on 
the receiving end of several privacy-related class-action lawsuits -- 
yesterday posted a revised privacy policy informing customers that the 
information they give is considered a company asset that can be sold. "As 
we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores or assets. 
In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the 
transferred business assets," the company said. The company also said that 
"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." Amazon claims the maneuver was engineered to build 
trust among its customers... (New York Times story; free subscription 
required)

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/articles/01amazon-privacy.html