Free Ipod Site Sued by NY State
The State of New York, which happens to have one of the most advanced cyber-response government organizations in the country, and great State-Wide policies to protect its citizens, is going after a multi-level marketing site that falsely offers free stuff in exchange for email addresses, which it then sell to spammers.
From CNET here:
A Web company that offered free iPods, video games and condoms to qualified registrants now faces a lawsuit alleging it sold millions of user e-mail addresses that it had vowed to keep private.
In a civil complaint released Thursday, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused Washington D.C.-based Gratis Internet of deceptive business practices. The suit requests monetary penalties and an injunction against the activity in question.
In Thursday’s filing, the state claims that Gratis violated its own privacy policies by collecting and selling personal information on more than 7 million users, over a period of three and a half years. Gratis sold the information to three independent e-mail marketers, including Datran, in 2004 and 2005, according to the suit. Those marketers went on to fire off tens of millions of unsolicited e-mails to the addresses obtained, the complaint alleged.
In order to secure the “free” goods, visitors must sign up for at least one promotion offered by Gratis’ third-party business partners, such as Blockbuster Video, BMG Music Service and CitiBank. They earn freebies by persuading a requisite number of friends to register as well. Gratis receives payments from its partners ranging from $20 to $70 for each participating customer, the court filing said.
The state claims that between 2000 and 2004, Gratis pledged explicitly and repeatedly on its sites to “never” give out, sell or lend its customers’ information to anyone, even its business partners.
Everyone has seen these stupid web banners offering freebies. Such sites typically perform the ol’ bait-n-switch to try to get you to give up the email addresses of yourself, your family and your friends. Nothing in this world is free, and I’m glad that the State of NY has to balls to go after such Internet Scammers.
