When Amazon.com announced last week that it was changing its privacy policy, there was one interesting oversight in the press release - no explanation of what the change was. PR NEWS contacted
the company's media relations office to point out the gap and ask for details of the change. By press time, we still had not received a callback, though the company has now divulged that the policy is
being changed to allow future sharing of its customers' information.
On the heels of Amazon's announcement, another dot-com is positioning itself on the high road. Outpost.com, itself a high-end consumer e-tailer, is characterizing Amazon's policy change as "short-
sighted" and promising that its customer information will not be sold. Outpost spokesman Jim Gallagher says his company considers the move a PR goof on Amazon's part that Outpost hopes to capitalize on.
Part of Outpost's stance also comes from its belief that the media consider Amazon a bellwether, so if it changes its privacy policy, that must be okay - a view that Outpost strongly disagrees with,
Gallagher says.
(Gallagher, 860/927-8616)