On September 1, 2000, I received the same notice from Amazon.com that millions of others received. It happened to be on the same day as third article in the "Miranda Labels" series was released.

I believe that this action by Amazon.com underscores the very essence of the concern that is expressed in the series. My correspondences with amazon.com follow:

At 04:13 AM 9/1/00 -0700, legalnotices@amazon.com wrote:
Dear Customer,

We have just updated Amazon.com's privacy policy and, because privacy is important, we wanted to e-mail you proactively in this case and not just update the policy on our site, as is the common Web practice. Thanks for being a customer and allowing us to continue to earn your trust.

To read the updated Privacy Notice, visit: http://www.amazon.com/privacy-notice

Thanks again for shopping at Amazon.com.

Sincerely,
Amazon.com

PS: We hope you appreciated receiving this message. However, if you'd rather not receive any future notices of this sort from Amazon.com, please send an e-mail message to nolegalnotices@amazon.com. Please be aware that even if you choose not to receive these updates, they will still cover your use of Amazon.com.

Sirs:

Thank you for your legal notice that you intend to disregard my personal security and sell or otherwise make available private information about me.

I am sure that you have only my best interests at heart and only want to provide the best possible services and shopping experience, but I would rather not be sold out to the first buyer with a dime to by my profile.

Please delete all information about me and my purchases from any and every database that you are in any way associated with. I insist that you remove any personal purchase information immediately, leaving no trace of any transactions or page views that I have ever executed via amazon.com.

Please notify me at this address of compliance and legal assurance that such has been effected.

-David Matthews

At 03:41 PM 9/4/00 -0700, terms@amazon.com wrote:
Dear David,

Hello and thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com with your concern.

Please rest assured that Amazon.com is not in the business of selling customer information.

We have developed, and may continue to develop, business relationships and co-branded sites with other online companies (such as drugstore.com and toysrus.com). We will make it clear when an affiliated merchant is involved in any transaction you may make via our web site. If you would prefer not to share your personal information with an affiliated merchant, you may choose not to participate in any transactions with these merchants.