NewsSubject: Senate OKs measure to keep dot-coms from selling personal customer data WASHINGTON -- Bankrupt dot-coms seeking to raise a quick buck may have to forgo selling one of their most valuable assets: their customer database. Mercury News, Thursday, March 15, 2001 BY HEATHER FLEMING PHILLIPS Mercury News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Bankrupt dot-coms seeking to raise a quick buck may have to forgo selling one of their most valuable assets: their customer database. The U.S. Senate approved legislation Thursday that would forbid companies from selling their customers' personal information to outside parties if they had promised they wouldn't, or unless a judge weighed the privacy implications and allowed the sale to go forward. The measure, tucked into a much broader bill that would reform the nation's bankruptcy laws, is aimed specifically at financially failing dot-coms. The vulnerability of consumers' personal information online was highlighted last summer when bankrupt Toysmart.com, majority-owned by Walt Disney Co., announced its plans to sell its database of customer information as a way to raise money. Under the Senate bill, bankrupt companies can sell their customers' personal information -- such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit-card numbers -- only if the sale is consistent with their previously stated privacy policies. For instance, if a site selling toys told its customers that their personal information would be used only to market toys, it could sell that data to other toy companies with similar privacy policies. |
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