Online women's sportswear retailer Lucy.com changed its privacy policy yesterday in response to a report released Monday that it, Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com and Fusion.com are sharing customers' personally identifiable information with Internet marketing firm Coremetrics in violation of the companies' privacy policies.
The four sites were named in a press release issued by Internet privacy service provider Interhack Corp., Columbus, Ohio.
Until yesterday, the four e-tailer's privacy statements affirmed that customer data was not shared with third parties while, in reality, personal information was forwarded to Coremetrics.
Coremetrics, San Francisco, is an application service provider that reports on customer behavior based on information provided to it by Web sites. Its own privacy policy states that it does not share PII with third parties.
Lucy.com issued a statement yesterday explaining that it uses Coremetrics' data analysis services, but that it has never and will never sell, rent or misuse customer information. It also revised its privacy policy to reflect its use of Coremetrics' services and to provide a link for customers to opt out at the Coremetrics site.
Toys 'R' Us has yet to change its privacy policies for its Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com e-tail sites. Sports gear site Fusion.com has not updated its privacy statement either.
The Lucy.com and Fusion.com sites both bear the TrustE “trustmark.” TrustE, a privacy group that issues seals to Web sites committed to customer privacy, is investigating the matter.
