After working for computer companies for 30 years, I have become a little bit of a privacy nut. Computer databases and the information they hold is a very powerful tool. There are very few laws protecting consumers and their information. With few exceptions, any business can sell or give away all information that they collect on you. And the consumer has little recourse.
I used to purchase all of my books from Amazon. What Amazon taught me was that the Privacy Policies that businesses go out of their way to point out to the consumer, are relatively meaningless.
Amazon had a privacy policy stating that they would never sell or share your information with anyone. Then one day they decided to partner with other manufacturers and businesses and market their products through the Amazon site. So, they just up and changed their privacy policy to permit sharing all of your information with their business partners. As a customer, you were screwed. You gave them information based on their promise to not share and they reneged on that promise.
Now I receive numerous emails and junk mail ads from Amazon's partners, because Amazon shared my email and snail mail addresses.....along with my credit card numbers and my (book) buying patterns. The only power that an individual consumer has, is to speak with his/her feet and take your business elsewhere. I will never shop at Amazon again.
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