An online payment company which sold a list of almost a million customers to spammers and telemarketers without permission has agreed to return the money it made from the sales, the Federal Trade Commission said March 10.
CartManager International sold names, addresses, telephone numbers, and purchase histories of consumers using its shopping cart software to buy on thousands of Websites, despite telling those shoppers their personal information would be kept private, the FTC said announcing the settlement.
The company earned $9,000 from selling the lists. Under the settlement deal with the FTC, the company also agreed to disclose clearly whenever it intends to sell such data in the future, facing bigger penalties for violating that agreement.
CartManager had said it would retain complete ownership of the information in question, the FTC said, but the company had buried that notice in a thick, lengthy online agreement that didn’t explain just how the information might be used.
