Washington Post: Web Firms Choose Profit Over Privacy. To parents interested in buying the popular Hooked on Phonics learn-to-read programs, the company made a firm promise on its Web site: It would never sell or rent their personal information to other marketers. But that pledge was empty. In the pages of a marketing trade publication, Gateway Learning Corp., the product’s California-based parent company, was advertising to rent the list of Hooked on Phonics buyers to other marketers.
What penalty will Hooked on Phonics face for this betrayal of its word? Probably none — and that’s the problem with privacy policies today.
Oh, I expect the Federal Trade Commission to read the Post story and launch some modest action, resulting in a slap on the wrist that won’t deter this kind of behavior at all. We need more.
The trial lawyers have gone overboard on many issues, but I find my self hoping they’ll file a class-action suit against the companies involved. It’s obvious that Congress and state lawmakers won’t do much.