Privacy groups call for UK and US investigation of Amazon.com

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."