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FTC Seeks Battle With Toysmart
wrenling writes: "Toysmart promised to never share their customer's data. They lied. They are seeking to sell their customer databases. The FTC voted today to begin a court battle with Toysmart to block them from doing so. CNN has more details in a CNNfn article."
So you tought that coming here and buying our crap merchandise ONCE, a miserable one time in your life was enough?
Look at what you acomplished, you moron! We are out of business now, thanks to you! Why haven't you come back? Why haven't you told your wife, your husband, your neighbours, your friends to come and buy from us? Why?
Know what, we will get even with you. Yes, just wait and see. We have you by the hand. We know where you live, we know your credicard number, we know your phone number.
We will go out and sell all this to highest bidder. No, I have a better idea yet. We will sell it to MEANEST bidder.
Your phone number will go to the worst direct marketeers in the country! Your address, to every church in your area. Your children's names will go directly to alt.sex.pedophilia.children.offer.themselves. Your wife's name we have already sent to a scort's online site. And your boss will be hearing about that sex toys you bought.
You made us suffer. Now taste our revenge. Next time you will thinking twice before failing to help an honest and good online store to trive.
There is a parallel, in my view, between this and "click-through" and "shrinkwrap" licensing schemes.
From a common sense standpoint, the FTC has to win this battle. If they don't, this would not only make privacy policies essentially unenforceable, but other types of non-signature contracts as well.
If a company is able to arbitrarily go against their posted privacy policy, then consumers should be able to do the same in reverse for any other similar type of contract. IE, I should be able to click on one of Microsoft's "I Agree" buttons on one of their click-through licenses, and then feel free to go against it at a whim. They are both equally valid contracts, requiring exactly the same effort to "agree" to them (clicking on a little button on a webpage), and both employing the same tactic for proof of identity (they take your word for it).
It would be in any software company's best interests to fight on the FTC's side on this one.
Our promise
At toysmart.com, we take great pride in our relationships with our customers and pledge to maintain your privacy while visiting our site. Personal information voluntarily submitted by visitors to our site, such as name, address, billing information and shopping preferences, is never shared with a third party. All information obtained by toysmart.com is used only to personalize your experience online. This information is received via the following areas of our site: My toysmart and the Gift Center. When you place additional orders, our site will update your order history, which you can view in My toysmart. If you sign up for the gift registry, information you submit will be added to your personal profile. Other than these two instances, the information that you provide us is not supplemented in any way.
Right Now, our government is doing things you think only other governments do.
This is a straw man. Contract enforcement is one of the few government functions generally accepted as proper by libertarians. Toysmart promised not to sell their data -- if they try to do it anyway, nail 'em.
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/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.