Radio Shack Sells Your Personal Information As Part Of Bankruptcy Settlement

I am not in the habit of speaking falsehoods. I believe in the truth. I am not self righteous or overly perfect by any means. I like to treat people the way I'd want to be treated. That means being up front on just about any topic that is directly connected to me. I have made one major exception to that way of life. I have never told the truth about my name, address, or email address to anyone at a Radio Shack store. With what you're about to hear you will wish you had been a deceitful hooligan like me.

I just discovered that one of the assets that Radio Shack is selling off as part of their bankruptcy deal is the names, addresses, and personal information of more than 65 million customers. Chances are if you've purchased a phone, a computer, a power cord, or a radio controlled toy from "The Shack" you're included in that 65 million names.

If you're a babe in the woods on this new frontier known as the Internet let me tell you about the buried treasure that Internet prospectors are looking for. That treasure is your personal information. Your name, your email address, your physical address, your cellphone number are all very valuable to companies that want to sell you things. Radio Shack was the absolute pushiest store on the planet when it came to collecting that data.

It was almost passive aggressive the way the Radio Shack counter clerk would say, "What was that name again?" insinuating that I had given them my name. One clerk even told me he couldn't ring me up with out the information. I told him to simply input his own name and personal information since the computer system really didn't care who was buying the coaxial connector I needed. He did. I got his employee discount. I am such a snake in the grass.

There is still some legal wrangling that will have to take place before our names and addresses can be sold to the highest bidder. The Attorney General of Texas has filed a suit and so has AT&T. There was also a sign in many Radio Shack stores that stated

“We pride ourselves on not selling our private mailing list.”

So the company's own privacy policy could come into play in this situation as well.

Regardless it's kind of frightening to think that anybody who you may have ever done business with could sell your information as part of their assets. I guess it's the way of the world but I like my personal information to stay private. How this case is eventually settled will say a lot about the future of doing business in this country. It might be time to start thinking of a fake name you can use. The one I always go with is Sam Walton of Bentonville Arkansas.