RadioShack puts customer personal data up for sale in bankruptcy auction | Hacker News Reader

RadioShack puts customer personal data up for sale in bankruptcy auction

pcworld.com

120 pointsadamnemecek40 comments

Like nobody ever saw that coming...

"Sure, your privacy is important to us - but not to our liquidator, and not as important as maximising shareholder value, sorry..."

I expect 1060 West Addison St, Chicago, IL, 60613 is about to get a bunch more spam addressed to Elwood Blues. :-)

I went to RadioShack in Boston around the late 90's to buy some batteries, and the clerk asked for my name and address. I was not in a mood to play their personal information game, so I just said "John Doe" thinking he'd just drop it. He then responded "of 123 Maple Street?" "Yup".

Any time I've bought something at RadioShack since, I've made sure to use John Doe at 123 Maple Street in the city the Store was located in. Maybe half the time someone had already beat me to it.

When I worked their seasonally a few years ago we thankfully had a sane manager that knew people didn't want to give away their personal information (especially for small purchases) so we had a 'Shack, Radio' name with the address of the store (As the POS required an address to be inputted). Unfortunately, we still needed to ask for the larger purchases as they would go ballistic if all purchases were tied to that address.

And did you ever refuse to sell to someone who refused their data?

I used to roll over, decades ago, but at least in the last decade I just calmly and firmly say "no" while looking them right in the eye. They just say OK and take my money, I don't know what they do behind the register.

For the uninitiated, is there cultural significance to 123 Maple Street?

It's around the corner from 321 Elm.

123 because, well, it's in order. And Maple street because there's one in almost every town in America. One could also use 1st St, Main St, Oak St, etc. Maple has a nice ring.

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/123_Fake_Street

No, it's just an extremely generic name and the employee looked up John Doe on the computer and it was already in there because of someone else who didn't want to give up their name.

I'm going to start registering that everywhere now, just to see how long it lasts.

Thanks! I caught the 1060 Addison reference from the Blues Brothers. Was thinking I was behind the times on something similar here.

Double that, its the same address I use too! lol

In a bankruptcy all claims by creditors must be satisfied prior to any reimbursement to shareholders. Given that companies generally go bankrupt because their liabilities to creditors exceed their assets, this almost always means that all shares in the company are reduced to a value of nothing, the rare exception being when a company's assets exceed its liabilities, but goes bankrupt because it is unable to liquidate its assets fast enough to pay its creditors on time. But even in that case it's likely that shareholders get fractions of pennies on the dollar.

See, they're not selling customer data to another company, they're just selling the part of Radio Shack that owns the customer data! Totally different!

You joke, but you bring up a good point. Would we have been as outraged if some big company was buying Radioshack as a whole for a small price? Because in effect the same thing would be happening... customer personal data would be transferred to some other company.

But this pcworld article frames in such a way that "customer personal data being sold!!!" is emphasized and makes it more pernicious than it really is -- or rather, makes it sound like it isn't business as usual, when really, it really is!

If I gave RadioShack my data, it would be because I wanted them to have it. If I wanted some other company to have that, I would have given it to them already.

If you are buying things with debit/credit cards the banks that issue those cards are already selling your data without your knowledge.

It is opt-out only and you have to do it in writing, there is no online hassle-free way to do it, which is on purpose. There is also no way to confirm they really stopped selling your data.

Is this an American thing? Because I've never had my bank, my provider, my health care etc sell any of my data (at least as far as I know).

How would you know?

Do you have a credit card, and have you read the pages of fine print?

Maybe (s)he has decent data protection laws in his/her country. I'm pretty sure this would be illegal in the EU, under the Directive 95/46/EC.

That is adorable.

Thanks, darling.

To make myself clear, I'm not saying they don't do it. I'm saying it's probably illegal, therefore the fine print doesn't matter.

It is a German thing as well: The Telekom sells mobile user data [1] (link in German).

[1] http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/datenschutz-vag-i...

I can't wait for Bitcoin like technologies to be ubiquitous.

I understand that some countries allow small purchases to be made with special bitcoins made out of atoms and backed by fiat currency. I’m told that in those countries, their atom coins are ubiquitous, and, there is technology that allows mobile payments.

For example, you can purchase foodstuffs from vending machines using atom coins. The mind boggles.

And unlike bitcoins, the atom coins aren't traceable!

However, the wallet technology is extremely insecure.

My wallet could get stolen, with a fraction of my money in it. Seems more likely that bitcoins will get stolen at some point, and all your money is just gone.

Tip: Carry your atom-wallet in your front pocket. Pickpockets have a hard time with front pockets.

This weird technology has been used for some time though, so users have already internalized good practices wrt. secure mattercoin handling.

Well considering the BitCoin hype has died down...that seems unlikely.

Even the Texas state attorney general isn't putting up with this. One would think that Texas would be all for companies doing whatever they want, but no.

Now the New York state AG, too. What's left of Radio Shack probably isn't going to get away with this.

That's actually one of the reasons why I avoided shopping at Radio Shack.

Every other business in town just silently pulls your information using the bank card, and leaves cash customers alone. Asking for my telephone number and/or ZIP code is not a necessary part of the transaction.

I don't actually care much that they have the info. There's no easy way around it, and if you ever order goods to be delivered to your home, you're hardly keeping it a secret. What I really objected to was the extra inconvenience at the point of sale.

And also having to endure "help" from clueless employees. I hate that "can I help you find anything, sir?" If I need help, I will find a person who doesn't look like a total noob and ask them, because I really don't need another warm body scanning the shelves next to me, who doesn't even know what the thing I want looks like.

It's standard to sell customer data in bankruptcy. Something to think about even if you trust the company you are providing info to to use it appropriately.

The RadioShack sale may have just been completed but it there's still some hope:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2901995/new-york-threatens-ac...

I'm not sure I understand the outrage of personal data that retailers have outside of actual credit card details. They know someone at address 123 Street or email address johndoe@email.com bought batteries or a phone or a tv? Okay and you're going to get more emails or snail mail advertising crap to you. Spam folder or garbage bin.

Also - how is this actually worth any real dollars to another company? In this day and age are there really companies with a valid business model that rely on getting lists of random consumers who bought electronic crap? Isn't that like everyone that has an address.

Really, please someone enlighten me about this.

Given all the data breaches lately, they'll probably end up in a price war with the Russian hackers.

damn i should not have told them my info in exchange for them crappy free batteries!

(I remember going to the shack with dad as a kid. His favorite thing there were the free batteries. Just by showing up you could get a free 9v battery. What a great place!)

A lot of TOS include a special section to allow dumb things in the event the company is bought or goes bankrupt. I assume that's what happened here.

"We will not sell your data, but we don't promise anything about our new owners"

I always politely declined when asked for my phone number and address and it was never an issue.. They aren't going to want to lose a sale over it.

Did RadioShack have any customers?

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