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Michelle
of Huntingon Station, NY, writes:
I
started a priceline.com grocery account for my father. He
doesn't own a computer, but still wanted to try out the service.
I own my own domain name, so I made up a unique email address
(xx@xx.com) just for him and the priceline account. I have
the email from xx@xx.com forwarded to my regular email address,
but the header clearly includes that the email was originally
sent to 'xx'.
No
one else ever had that email address.
When
I registered at priceline, I used my father's name, Peter,
obviously because it was his acount. Priceline has a privacy
policy which states that they never reveal any personal information
to other companies. Well, they violated that policy. The 'xx@ixx.com'
address received unsolicited "spam" from JCPenney. The only
way that JCPenney could have gotten that address is from priceline.
Of
course I could not get anything close to a straight answer
from priceline regarding the problem. I have all of the emails
from their oh-so-helpful customer service representatives,
which are safely stored on my hard drive.
What
are my rights as a consumer? If a company clearly states that
they don't give out your personal information, but they DO,
what course of action can be taken against them?
It's very unethical for companies to gather this kind
of information with the promise that it won't be sold ...
and then to sell it anyway. If, in fact, Priceline has done
this it could be prosecuted under for fraud. We referred Michelle
to the Federal Trade Commission, which has gotten rather aggressive
about this kind of thing.
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