In the second Federal privacy scandal to engulf a 'Net company, Alexa has agreed to pay out nearly $1.9 million to the users it mislead. Contrary to their publicly posted privacy policy, Alexa was actually gathering targeted statistics on individual users, with the information directly tied to the user. This violates Federal law. Alexa initially denied the charges, then reversed their position when searches of their databases proved the information was directly tied to users' names, addresses, Social Security numbers and telephone numbers. Much of the mischief ocurred via the now defunct zBubble division of Amazon.COM (both Alexa and zBubble are divisions of Amazon.COM). Alexa and zBubble shared information. Users will receive up to $40 per user. Claims have been closed for some time, but the money only recently was mailed to the affected users. An additional payment of $100,000.00 is earmarked for special 'Net privacy advocate groups.
Due to privacy problems, Amazon.COM has been banned for nearly a year from any participation of any kind at Pacoima Ranch. This latest lawsuit merely proves that Amazon.COM has a spotty history of ethical treatment of users. Previous problems involved improper sharing of information with third-party vendors and a spam-based sales campaign that was virtually impossible to opt-out of late last year. Users were tricked into believing they had completed an opt-out when they had actually performed an opt-in. Permission-based E.Mail programs refer to opt-out meaning the recipient wishes to NOT receive mailings (usually spam) and opt-in to mean when it's OK to send mailings.
As alluded to, this was a second time that Federal privacy laws have been used against a 'Net company. The first time was also against Alexa. It was proven using packet sniffing software that Alexa was collecting credit card information and directly tying this to users. Phone numbers, airplane ticket information, and names were also being transmitted. Users mislead in this way received $2,000.00 in damages per incident. The 'Net community salutes the Federal prosecutors for using existing laws to quash an obviously bad trend.
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