RadioShack Puts Customer Data Up For Sale In Bankruptcy Auction 262
itwbennett writes For years, RadioShack made a habit of collecting customers' contact information at checkout. Now, the bankrupt retailer is putting that data on the auction block. A list of RadioShack assets for sale includes more than 65 million customer names and physical addresses, and 13 million email addresses. Bloomberg reports that the asset sale may include phone numbers and information on shopping habits as well. New York's Attorney General says his office will take 'appropriate action' if the data is handed over.
Does it come with free batteries? (Score:2)
Re: Does it come with free batteries? (Score:3)
The only thing better than not being on a database is polluting that database with so much false information that it becomes useless.
I feel better now... (Score:5, Interesting)
For having either refused to give them my information, or giving them made up info. And they've just guaranteed that I do this with all other stores from which I make cash purchases.
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Best Buy once asked me for my phone number. They claimed if I didn't give to them my payment may not go through (was using my credit card iirc).
I just told them that I'd never had that issue before. I think I eventually had to give them a (obviously fake) number to move on -- like one even the cashier could tell was invalid.
This is why I don't join rewards programs. (Score:3, Interesting)
Because the reward is they SHIT ON YOUR PRIVACY..
Re:This is why I don't join rewards programs. (Score:5, Funny)
#ohgodhowdidIgetthisold
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80's data (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:80's data (Score:5, Funny)
CSAVE "CSTDAT.TXT",A
hang on, folks. this is gonna take some time.
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Don't you mean 8" floppies" [wikipedia.org]?
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We had 5 1/4" floppy floppies in the 80s. And saved data on audio cassette. And even had 2.88mb 3.5" floppies that weren't floppy. Heck, some of us even had *gasp* hard drives!
I am not worried (Score:3)
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I bought lots of stuff off of RadioShack back in ye olden days. Two computers (an MC-10 and a CoCo3), several game ROMs, two printers, a one-sided floppy drive, OS/9 level 2, and dozens of doo-dads for various projects.
So yeah, if RadioShack wants to sell the fact that I bought a TP-10 thermal printer back in 1983, then go to town!
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I too started on a Coco 3. And worse, I recently found this:
http://www.coco4.com/vcc/ [coco4.com]
A lot of it about. (Score:3)
Re:A lot of it about. (Score:5, Insightful)
IIUC, bankruptcy laws require them to sell anything they can make money on unless it's illegal. And the people managing the bankruptcy aren't the people who were running the company before. (Usually, maybe they are in this case.)
Keep this in mind whenever a business asks you for information.
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RadioShack doesn't operate (anymore) in Europe. In the US private data collection and resale is legal and encouraged.
Fuckedcompany (Score:5, Interesting)
Man this reminds me of news from the old fuckedcompany.com and internal memos days; companies selling all their hardware and forgetting they had customer data on hard drives.
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It's very simple as to why they'd sell hardware with data on they drives- if they had to spend the effort/money to wipe the drives then they'd recuperate less in liquidation. It's a selfish motive and completely understandable, even if completely disagreeable.
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Some of the top customers from my RadioShack years (Score:3)
Johnny Cash
123 Anywhere St
Frankfort, IL
Dagwood Blues
1060 West Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613
(Elwood was too obvious to store managers)
George Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
(Address verification on SCO Unix 3? HA!)
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My favorite was always
Todd Wilkinson
1 Happy Street
Fryburg, CA
a typo? (Score:2)
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It's kinda like an online petition that way
Same problem applies to law and regulation (Score:5, Insightful)
Same can happen at a cloud provider... (Score:2)
One scenario that I worry about with cloud providers is exactly this. The provider goes bankrupt, sells all data to someone else, and they now have all the servers and can use the container information, free, clear, with nothing the clients of the former cloud provider able to do about it legally, barring copyright violations.
Both Borders and RS both show a lesson -- yes, there is a privacy policy with company "A", but when the servers get under the ownership of a new company, that policy is out the window
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I don't think that would work in the USA. It breaks the one rule there is:
"Don't piss off someone (or group thereof) richer than yourself."
Buy it to destroy it (Score:2)
Can we start an organization who buys the customer list and destroys it? Except I don't want them to actually profit from this. Hmmmm...
Seinfeld (Score:2)
Kramer knew it all along [youtube.com].
Canadian Tire (Score:5, Interesting)
If you return an item to Canadian Tire (for a refund, maybe exchanges too) they also ask for your phone number. I've learned that they do this to limit the number of returns you can do (which I think is probably illegal) so I always say I don't have a phone, only Internet. The cashier always end up using the store's own phone number instead.
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Not illegal if they informed you that last time they did a refund that you were now an exception to the policy. There's nothing in Canadian law requiring a company to provide a refund, assuming they didn't defraud you in some fashion.
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Unless they advertised a refund policy in effect at the time of the original purchase.
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The Retail Equation is what a number of big retailers in the USA use (i.e. Victoria's Secret). Even if you show up with the original receipt in hand and are just asking to do a like-item exchange for a different size, they demand to scan your gov't issued photo id. They will refuse your exchange unless you capitulate or try to dispute the purchase with your credit card company.
If there was ever a legitimate use for a fake id, this is it.
That will be amusing (Score:2)
Whenever Radio Shack asked me for my address I just said I wasn't interested in giving it to them. But a friend of mine did one better... he always wrote down the address of the White house and signed it Mickey Mouse. And the sales person dutifully entered it into the computer, no questions asked.
-Matt
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The clerks don't care, and why should they? But I believe the computer was setup so it was truly impossible for them to complete a sale without entering something. I've seen them make up a name and address when I refuse to give them one.
I avoided Radio Shack because of that policy, as did many others. I'm sure it's one of the reasons they went out of business. At least I hope it is - it serves them right.
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The clerks not only don't care, they are at least as pissed off as you are.
Because HE, not the markedroid idiot that came up with this marvelous idea, HE gets yelled at by paranoid customers who can't just say "don't wanna" but have to make an insanely huge deal out of it. It is seriously in the clerks best interest to enter as many bogus addresses as he possibly can get away with, hoping that eventually the whole shit gets dumped because it causes more trouble than it's worth.
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What about prevention? (Score:2)
"New York's Attorney General says his office will take 'appropriate action' if the data is handed over."
So they must think handing over the data would be unlawful. Why not prevent it from happening in the first place?
Submit the customers to a lifetime of real world spam, and then do what, take action against a company that doesn't exist anymore?
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Surely, this situation has come up thousands of times already. I thought the precedent was that it is basically legal.
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Perhaps his concept of 'appropriate' is different than ours.
I always just declined when they asked (Score:2)
Never was a big deal.
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Same.
Clerk: "Phone Number?"
Me: "Cash Customer"
Clerk. "OK." They skip entering any more info in.
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Phone number?
911
Erh... that's the emergency number?
Yeah, and I'd really wish I could be there when your autodialer calls it and your markedroid has to explain it to the pissed off 911 agent.
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Varies by company and time. I've had Radio Shack refuse to sell me stuff without a phone number. That was probably in the 90s. Lately, Sears has been getting aggressive about it. I got lectured with some crap about Sears becoming a "member oriented" company by some college educated sales guy who couldn't get a real job, when I politely declined to give them my phone number.
Good for you, Sears. Keep the merch. I'll buy it from someone else.
This is a perfect example (Score:2)
This is a perfect example of why we should not be giving personal information to anyone without a VERY good reason. Even if the company you're giving it to has the best privacy policy in the world and is completely hack-proof, if that company ever goes under then you're screwed.
Oh, I'm sure they'll take "appropriate action" (Score:2)
After all, they have to make sure that tax is paid on this transaction!
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Worse was how they would always ask for your phone number every time you bought anything!
(I remember a comedian joking about this once... "Why does Radio Shack need your phone number to sell you batteries?")
Luckily, I too would make up a fake number.
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Back in the days of COCOTs, buying a number pad dialer and a certain other electronic item would cause the local rat shack to deny the sale, refusing to help anyone trying to make a red box. Assuming you were dumb enough to give them a phone number for both transactions.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't give out personal information for no benefit to myself. I don't show my receipt at the door unless it's at a membership store where I could lose my account if I fail to do so (like Costco). I'm there to exchange cash for goods. I don't care about their attempts to do more.
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't show my receipt at the door unless it's at a membership store where I could lose my account
I hate to say it, but I personally love walking out of Best Buy while their "security guard" yells at me but then does nothing about me not stopping. It's not stolen, and I'm not going to be treated like it is.
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I've been threatened and shouted at for just walking out with a $3.99 Blu-Ray and even held out my receipt while walking by. Guess it depends where you live, but I'm not in a major city or even a large suburb.
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It sounds like he's saying that the way to get service is to pretend to be a shoplifter?
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I do the same. At Costco I've agreed to it in becoming a member. Anywhere else I just keep walking and say "I didn't steal anything".
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That usually works painlessly not, but back in Ye Olde Daye I had Radio Shack refuse to sell me things (batteries, of course) because I wouldn't give them a phone number. As you might expect, that led to a good many years where I couldn't think of a good reason to enter their stores.
Funny coincidence, them going bankrupt and all.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. I paid for the products and they have no right to search me.
Even at Costco, if the line is too long, I just walk out without letting them search me.
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You might be able to make that argument... once.
If you know before you walk in that they're going to ask on the way out, then you don't really have an excuse.
It's the same deal in Western societies where you pay for your meal after you eat it: It's just understood that's how it works, and you can be legally liable if you don't.
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It's actually not the same. You do have to pay for it by law, but nobody's going to try to jail you if you attempt to pay when you order.
Likewise for Best Buy, you do have to pay, but as long as you do, that's the end of it legally speaking. No law says you have to submit to a search.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
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At least at Fry's, it truly is a customer service initiative.
Baloney. It's "loss prevention" aka "treating your customers like criminals". That it might catch a mistake in the customer's favor is purely a nice side-effect, but doesn't take away from the fact that it is belligerent and powerfully offensive.
I have never, and will never, submit to exit searches like that.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Just to add to this.. door checks of receipts also catch cashier error, most commonly cases of charging for the same item twice accidently.
I'm not overly fond of door checking of receipts but enh, there's much better things to worry about. If you don't like stores that have this policy, don't shop there.
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Actually you gave Costco that right (Score:2)
Nope. I paid for the products and they have no right to search me. Even at Costco, if the line is too long, I just walk out without letting them search me.
No right to search you? You mean other than the membership agreement you signed that allows you to enter their private property?
Don't confuse you having a right with Costco being polite despite you being an a-hole.
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Well technically he still has the right to refuse an unlawful search of his person ...
For those unfamiliar with costco they are not searching your person. They ask you to show your receipt and they take a quick look through and under your shopping cart.
No deadly force to protect property (Score:2)
In the US it is usually (always ?) illegal to use deadly force to protect property. There must a threat of death or severe bodily injury to make deadly force legal. Note that certain situations imply by law that such a threat exists unless there is evidence to the contrary, ex stranger forcing their way into your home. Ie the occupant of a home is presumed by law to be acting in self defense.
A weird exception may be deadly for
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Many states, including my home state of WV, have "stand your ground" laws where the bar to use deadly force is very low. In WV all that is required is a notice posted "Private property. No trespassing. Violators will be shot" notice. It is quite silly really. Our stand your ground law puts Florida's to shame!
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A bank as a form of retail establishment doesn't quite fit the definition as banks welcome everyone in to do business. It's private property but it's also a public space.
That is not "Stand Your Ground" (Score:5, Informative)
Many states, including my home state of WV, have "stand your ground" laws where the bar to use deadly force is very low.
My understanding of the concept of "Stand Your Ground" is that it does not define the conditions upon which deadly force may be used. Different concepts, for example the "Castle Doctrine", define such conditions. Under the "Castle Doctrine" a person is by law considered to be in danger of death or severe bodily injury if a stranger forces his way into their home. That forcible entry into the home enables the use of deadly force. What "Stand Your Ground" adds to such concepts is whether the person is obligated to flee. Does the person enabled to use deadly force under the "Castle Doctrine" have to attempt to flee if possible to do so. "Stand Your Ground" merely say that they have no such obligation to flee.
Be aware that "Stand Your Ground" is being grossly misrepresented in the media. Partly through the normal day to day ignorance of the media (*) and partly through politics.
(*) Consider the media's abysmal coverage and discussion of anything computer related. What makes you think they do any better on any other subject matter?
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Even so I would expect certain caveats. Is the stranger trespassing on the property armed for example. Bad news for a lost hunter, perhaps not for a lost hiker.
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Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
You may not have a signed a contract, but it's implied when you walk into a store that they have the right to protect their stuff (security cameras or whatever else).
But they don't have the legal, moral, or ethical right to search me.
You're just being a dick and making the security guard's job more difficult
It's hard to believe that the guard's life more difficult to hear "no thank you" as I stroll by, but if it does... then tough. They're being dicks by asking me to submit to a search. Fair's fair.
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In general, they have the right to temporarily detain you if they have reasonable suspicion that you've stolen something. I simply ignore them, and the day one touches my arm will get him fired by the time I'm finished. Even if you "agree" on entrance to have your bag searched when leaving, they can do nothing more than ask you not to return, which is legally binding.
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Yes, I check MY bag. I check MY wallet to make sure I put my credit card back. I don't go rummage through the store's storeroom to make sure my stuff isn't there.
No, you think it's implied. I don't, and I never steal and hate being treated like I might have. It's also not their stuff once I've purchased it, and
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I take offence to this. I have not been able to fit in a locker during all of the years I was in school no matter how hard you shoved me!
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Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
(yourareacode) 867-5309. Chances are, it's already in the system too.
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They don't say "You don't look like a Jenny" ?
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That's when you say in your gruffest voice "I'm a lady!" And then see if they apologize profusely.
I actually did that one the phone with cable Internet tech support when they questioned whether I was really the customer. I wasn't, I was calling on behalf of a woman whose computer I was working on. They were extremely apologetic and it was hilarious.
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For extra cultural cred, you could use Butterfield 8 as the area code.
(Sadly, Pennsylvania 65000 doesn't work any more.)
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I prefer (yourareacode) 555-1212
Or any random four numbers after 555. 555 is a faux prefix used for television shows, they never ever route to anyone.
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I just say "no, you don't need that" when they ask. If they insist I ask them if they really want the sale or not. Usually at that point they cave and process the transaction.
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Not me. I always used the same name.
"Cash."
Sometimes they'd try to convince me to give them more and I'd glare a little and say "Cash!" with emphasis.
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Re:Appropriate action ? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Sorry to see the Shack gone"
I'm not. Radioshack was fucking horrible in the last 20 years. High pressure commission sales staff, shitty products, questionable sales practices all the while shutting down the sale of all the items that made the store a treasure for its electronics parts. They deserved to go under, and most of us are just wondering how the hell it didn't happen sooner.
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Hell, they've been crap for the last 30 flippin' years.. In 1985, I got laid off from a job, and a friend who was a radio shack manager at a local store told me that they were hiring at the local Radio Shack Computer Center for a repair tech. I applied and despite having not much experience with the then-new personal computers, I got hired. I worked there for about 6 months, with my local manager happy as a clam with my work. I wound up being the go-to-guy on the small TRS-80 Model 100s that were just being
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They've been crap for a bit longer than that. Back in the stone-age days when they were the 7/11 of electronic parts stores, they were OK. Once they seriously branched out into consumer electronics (a few years before the TRS-80), their nosedive began.
I am among the people who have been amazed they didn't go under decades ago. Good riddance to a terrible company.
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"Sorry to see the Shack gone"
I'm not. Radioshack was fucking horrible in the last 20 years.
Not coincidentally my sorrow at seeing the shack gone actually started about 20 years ago :P
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It is great fun when they mob yo at the door with, "Can I help you?" to answer, "No thanks. Just shoplifting." They then follow you real close after that...
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No, the proper response to "we can't sell w/o data" is to leave without completing the purchase.