Is Amazon.Com Selling E-mail Addresses?

A worried Anonymous Coward asks: "I recently used Amazon(.co.uk)'s refer-a-friend scheme to refer a member of my family. I set up a new e-mail address for this purpose, and it had been used for nothing else. A few days after receiving the refer-a-friend voucher, the address started to receive spam mail. Only Amazon ever knew about this address? How did the address get on junk mail lists? The address was too obscure to have been guessed! Has anyone else had a similar experience?" You may think most eCommerce places won't stoop as low enough to sell addresses to potential spammers, but it always pays to read the fine print, first. More below.

According to Amazon.Co.Uk's Privacy Policy: "Amazon.co.uk does not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others. We may choose to do so in the future with trustworthy third parties, but you can tell us not to by sending a blank e-mail message to never@amazon.co.uk. (If you use more than one e-mail address to shop with us, send this message from each e-mail account you use.) Also, Amazon.co.uk may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information."