Six Lines

Barnes & Noble Purchasing Borders Customer Data

Posted by Aaron Massey on 22 Sep 2011.

It was basically inevitable. From Reuters:

Barnes & Noble Inc, which won the customer information of its bankrupt competitor Borders Group Inc at auction, says it should not have to comply with certain customer privacy standards recommended by a third-party ombudsman.

In court papers, Barnes & Noble said on Wednesday that its own privacy standards are sufficient to protect the privacy of customers whose information it won during an auction last week for Borders’ intellectual property assets.

Another fun snippet from the article:

Barnes & Noble rejected the consent requirement as “completely unrealistic.” The retailer proposed narrowing the recommendations to allow it to use its own privacy policy to govern the customers, which it said provides as much protection as Borders’ policy, if not more.

The stringent recommendations set out by Baxter could cause the assets to lose value, and puts the transaction as a whole “at risk,” Barnes & Noble said.

Assets. Oh Barnes & Noble, you know how to sweet talk your customers… Or are they even your customers if you had to buy their data from a defeated rival?