Alex Schiffer reports:
When Sports Authority Inc. said “everything must go,” it meant everything – including its customers’ personal information.
The Colorado sporting goods retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, auctioned this week its intellectual property, including the Sports Authority name, its e-commerce site and about 114 million customers’ files and 25 million email addresses. Dick’s Sporting Goods won with a $15-million bid.
Read more on Los Angeles Times.
Why were they allowed to auction off consumers’ information, you wonder, remembering what happened with RadioShack? There’s an answer. Schiffer explains:
Businesses have the legal right to sell consumer information as long as their privacy policies make it clear that data can be transferred or sold if the company is acquired or goes under.