My job is to get maximum value for the assets, so I attempted to sell the customer list. Texas and a few other states have built such a reputation for stalking list-sellers that many just surrender. Amazon's Patty Smith says the privacy policy is actually stricter now because it promises not to sell data except in certain instances. But Catlett says the retailing giant refuses to honor a previous pledge to him and other customers who chose never to disclose their data under any circumstances. To ease concerns, a growing number of dot-coms are letting third parties own and manage their customer data, says Tom Patterson of KPMG Consulting.
Many firms prefer such market-based solutions.
The Toysmart case, he adds, awoke dot-coms to the perils of data sharing.