While not as disturbing as an all-out hack, shoppers are often surprised to find their personal information sold to a competing retailer or another marketing entity.
The latest case involved last week’s sale of about 114 million shopper files and 25 million e-mail addresses from The Sports Authority to Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dick’s also attained the Sports Authority name and e-commerce domain in a bankruptcy auction for $15 million.
Such sales of consumer information are legal as long as the policies are spelled out. Hidden on its website, Sports Authority states, “We may transfer your personal information in the event of a corporate sale, merger, acquisition, dissolution or similar event.”
A Los Angeles Times article notes that with the rise of digital advertising such information has become significantly more valuable versus the pre-internet days when your home address seemed to be regularly resold. Dick’s could use the information to reach new customers, further bond with existing customers who visited both stores, optimize real estate planning, and for numerous other purposes.
At the same time, consumers have no guarantees that the new owner of their personal info will protect their data as well as the former one, possibly even selling it to spammers. Understanding their e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers and other personal information may be sold without granting express permission only increases the apprehension shoppers may have about sharing personalized information.
In one case that drew wide attention, RadioShack in its bankruptcy proceedings last year attempted to sell 67 million customer contacts, despite its policy against such sales. Under a settlement reached after protests from a coalition of 38 states, all the consumer data collected by RadioShack — except for e-mail addresses over the last two years — was destroyed. Affected consumers also had a 30-day window to opt out of providing those e-mails.
- In Sports Authority bankruptcy, customer e-mail data commands hefty sum – Los Angeles Times (tiered sub.)
- Sports Authority is going to auction off customer emails. Can it do that? – Christian Science Monitor
- Bankruptcy Judge Approves Sale of RadioShack Name and Data – The New York Times (tiered sub.)
- RadioShack sale protects most customer data – CNN