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For customers of the late Borders and Waldenbook retail outlets, beware. Competitor Barnes & Noble will know what you've bought from the now-defunct Borders retail group.
When Borders shut down in July, a federal bankruptcy court allowed the sale of the company's assets—including some personal data of approximately 45 million former Borders customers. And last week, the court approved the sale of Borders' data to Barnes & Noble.
According to an e-mail sent to former Border customers, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said the company acquired the customer data—which includes "the subject matter of your DVD and other video purchases"—in order to "try and earn your business."
Massachusetts State Attorney General Martha Coakley, notes the customer database contains specifically:
Still, if you'd rather not have your information in Barnes & Noble's hands, CEO Lynch said in his e-mail:
...You have the absolute right to opt-out... We will ensure all your data we receive from Borders is disposed of in a secure and confidential manner.
Consumers have until October 29 to visit www.bn.com/borders to scrub their information from Borders' database.
Important Information Regarding Your Borders Account [Barnes & Noble e-mail]
Form for former Borders customers to opt-out of B&N offers [Barnes & Noble]
AG Coakley Warns Former Borders Customers That Their Customer Information Will Be Sold Unless They Opt-Out [Massachusetts Attorney General website]
Borders Plans to Sell Customer Info to B&N [Peabody Patch]
Privacy alert: Borders is gone, but your info isn't [Boston Globe]
—Paul Eng
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