California High Court Backs Online Retailers in Privacy Battle
The California Supreme Court issued a 4 to 3 decision permitting online retailers that sell downloadable products such as music to gather personal identifying information from customers, exempting them from one of the provisions of California’s Credit Card Act. Under the Act, physical retailers are barred from gathering personal identifying information from customers using a credit card. Writing for the majority, Justice Goodwin Liu says online retailers should be granted an exception because unlike a physical retailer, they “cannot visually inspect the credit card, the signature on the back of the card, or the customer’s photo identification.” Liu compared the exception to laws that allow gas stations to require customers paying at the pump with a credit card to provide the ZIP code of their billing address. Writing for the dissenting minority, Justice Joyce L. Kennard calls the decision a “major loss for consumers,” saying it grants online retailers tacit approval to resell personal identification information gathered from credit card customers.
From “California High Court Backs Online Retailers in Privacy Battle”
Los Angeles Times (02/05/13) Dolan, Maura