NP corp. use of customer info

[Doug Millison]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/11toysmart.html
"The federal government on Monday sued to prevent Toysmart.com, a 
bankrupt Internet toy retailer, from selling its database of customer 
information, asserting the company had assured hundreds of thousands 
of online visitors their personal data would never be shared with a 
third party.  Officials at the Federal Trade Commission said 
Toysmart.com, in trying to sell the database among the defunct 
company's assets, has compromised not just names, addresses and 
shopping preferences of online toy shoppers, but potentially also 
family profile information, including names and ages of children. 
Toysmart, which is majority-owned by the Walt Disney Co., ceased 
operations in May and began soliciting bids for its assets. [snip]"

Tip of the iceberg. Public anxiety about internet privacy has focused 
on rogue hackers, stalkers, and other Internet criminals -- thanks to 
a less than aggressive computer industry and general reader press, 
and corporate apologists who tend to spout the kind of reassuring 
myths (no need to worry about corporations, it's those nasty 
government agents or sui generis Unabomber crackpots we need to fear) 
we've read recently here on the P-list -- but the  kind of activity 
Toysmart is engaging in is where the action really is, although it 
tends to go unnoticed unless the company falls under special 
scrutiny, as Toysmart.com has in its bankruptcy proceedings.
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