Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 15:46:30 -0400 From: Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro gps@ksp.com Subject: Amazon allows opt-out from Purchase Circles policy Amazon.com Inc., reacting to concerns it was violating the privacy of customers, said on Aug 26 that it would let people to exclude their purchases of books, videos and CDs from its "Purchase Circles" page that shows sales rankings for groups such as corporations and for cities and states. Amazon also said it would remove specific companies from the list at their request. It said the changes would be made as soon as possible. Amazon said it did not compile data for groups of less than 200 people to preserve anonymity. But privacy advocates protested, saying Amazon did not ask permission from customers to use the data and that it made public information that customers might not want revealed, even as part of a larger group. See http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2322310,00.html for ZDnet story. See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/community/community.html/ref=cm_gw/002-0253745-2632852 for Amazon Purchase Circles
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