( new stuff appended at end )
earlier:
" Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced a settlement to address what may have been the largest breach of privacy in internet history. ....
" Datran was alleged to have improperly used information it had obtained from several companies that compile and sell information on consumers.
" The largest such company, Gratis Internet, had assured consumers on several web sites it owned and operated that it would 'never lend, sell or give out for any reason' the information provided by users. Among the sites on which Gratis collected user information were 'freeipods.com' and 'freedvds.com.'
" The Attorney General's investigation revealed that Datran knew of Gratis' promise to consumers when it purchased the consumer lists. But after obtaining these lists, Datran sent millions of unsolicited e-mails to the listed consumers.
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And now:
" Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today sued a company responsible for what is believed to be the largest deliberate breach of privacy in internet history.
" The suit against web site operator Gratis Internet alleges that the company sold personal information obtained from millions of consumers under a strict promise of confidentiality.
[ snip ]" Even on its sign-up pages, Gratis promised consumers that it 'does not ... sell/rent emails.'
" However, the Attorney General's investigation confirmed that Gratis's owners, Peter Martin and Robert Jewell, repeatedly violated these promises during 2004 and 2005 by selling access to lists of millions of Gratis's customers to three independent email marketers. The marketers then sent hundreds of millions of email solicitations to those users, on behalf of their own customers. In each of these deals, Gratis wrongfully shared between one and seven million confidential user records. This is believed to be the largest deliberate breach of a privacy policy ever discovered by U.S. law enforcement.
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