In a letter dated 4th December, Privacy International, a
London-based human rights group, asked the Data Protection
Commissioner to halt Amazon.co.uk from processing customer data
because it says the company does not comply with UK data protection
law and that it should halt processing until it does comply.
Privacy International director Simon Davies alleged that the
company is "in wilful violation of several requirements of the
Act," including the obligation to give UK customers access to all
information held about them, and to delete it on request. Davies
also objected to Amazon's transfer of customer data from the UK to
the US and asked that this should be prohibited until “the company
demonstrates its willingness and capacity to operate legally.”
Davies explained in the letter that Amazon.co.uk failed to act on
his request for access to and deletion of all information held on
him.
In a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission, the US bodies
the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) and Junkbusters,
an organisation that campaigns against junk communications, asked
the FTC to determine whether Amazon.com deceived customers in the
US by changing its privacy policy to permit disclosure of personal
customer information.
EPIC and Junkbusters allege that the changes are inconsistent
with Amazon.com's previous statements that it would "never"
disclose customer information to third parties and are therefore
deceptive and illegal under FTC laws.
The groups asked the FTC to prohibit Amazon.com from disclosing
information about its customers without their prior consent, to
require Amazon.com to offer its customers the option to delete all
information about their identity and purchases, and to require
Amazon to tell each customer on request exactly what information it
has disclosed or exchanged about the customer with other companies
and to provide complete access to the customer profile.
Junkbusters President Jason Catlett today published an open
letter to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos summarising its concerns in
Amazon's position.
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of EPIC, said, "The United
States and the United Kingdom have established laws to safeguard
the rights of consumers. We are asking the FTC and the Data
Protection Commissioner to ensure that the right of privacy will be
respected in the online world."
