Amazon Fights For Privacy of Customer Records

suraj.sun notes a CNET article on Amazon's lawsuit against North Carolina on the grounds that the state is trying to violate the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon's customers. "Amazon.com filed a lawsuit on Monday to fend off a sweeping demand from North Carolina's tax collectors: [for] detailed records including names and addresses of customers and information about exactly what they had purchased. ... North Carolina's Department of Revenue had ordered the online retailer to provide full details on nearly 50 million purchases made by state residents between 2003 and 2010. Because Amazon has no offices or warehouses in North Carolina, it's not required to collect the [state's] 5.75 percent sales tax on shipments, although tax collectors have reminded residents that what's known as a use tax applies on anything 'purchased or received' through the mail." Amazon is arguing that the records of what books, music, and videos its customers bought deserve enhanced protection.

Comments

All these states should be like New Hampshire

[tgd]

Sales tax!? Bah, if you give up schools and paved roads, you can do without it entirely.

We do!

Re:All these states should be like New Hampshire

[Etherized]

Sales tax!? Bah, if you give up schools and paved roads, you can do without it entirely.

We do!

NC's government is so corrupt, we're currently giving up schools and paved roads even *with* the sales tax.

Re:All these states should be like New Hampshire

[tophermeyer]

Disclaimer: I grew up in NH.

And Tax-achusetts is doing soooo well with it's superior roads and schools.

Some of us here like potholes and unmarked one-way roads. Makes driving here a challenge, and by nature makes us all better drivers.

Re:All these states should be like New Hampshire

[allseason radial]

[...] Residents have to voluntarily pay the use tax on "foreign" purchases. You think the state rep was going to do that?

Of course he was. That's what his little black book contained: records of out-of-state purchases, disguised as the names and phone numbers of loose women.

Re:All these states should be like New Hampshire

[QuantumRiff]

The key to stopping this kind of boarding hopping is to take a note from the west coast, and make your states bigger.. I mean sure, in vancover, WA, they hop over the river, and buy things in portland tax free, but thats just a small percentage of the population. Now, you guys just gotta have some mergers and aquisitions, and combine some states, so its more than a 20 min drive to the next state. Seriously, the western states have counties bigger than you easterners.. Of course, out west, they tried to do the opposite, and tried to form the State of Jefferson by carving out a piece of northern CA, southern OR, and a bit of Nevada.. (google it) but put it on hold when WW2 started.

ps. my old county had a land area bigger than most eastern states, and only 4 cops per shift to patrol it... No wonder they are a little more pro-gun out there..

Oooohh!!!

[tgd]

I think that's my first first-post in 13 years of Slashdot!

*wipes away tear*

(And to you damn kids with mod points who want to mark this off-topic, give an old man a break... Some day you'll be old, too!)

(Oh, and get off my lawn.)

One click taxation

[Alain Williams]

Maybe NC ought to patent ''One Click Taxation'' and charge the other 49 states to use it - that would be a nice little earner for them and might solve their budget balancing problems.

Re:A means to an end...

[Stele]

There is also the nuclear option

That's right! Take off and nuke NC from orbit. It's the only way to be sure, of, er, something.