Apple has filed a court objection against the sale of RadioShack customer data for those who had purchased its products, reports Ars Technica.
Apple has filed a court objection against the sale of RadioShack customer data for those who had purchased its products, reports Ars Technica.
When RadioShack filed for bankruptcy in February, it sought a court-supervised sell-off of its $1.2 billion of assets, which included a database containing 117 million RadioShack customers’ personal data. This data is part of the package that hedge fund Standard General is due to acquire after is winning bid of $26.2 million this week, along with the RadioShack name and remaining assets.
Gizmodo reports that this data includes more than 13 million email addresses and 65 million physical addresses.
However Apple has called for data on its customers to be exempt from the sale, claiming that a separate agreement the two companies arrange precludes any data release. “In order to protect its customers’ personal information, Apple oversees the collection and use of customer information collected by its retail partners, including RadioShack,” reads Apple’s filing with the court.
“The Reseller Agreement between Apple and RadioShack protects information collected by RadioShack regarding purchasers of Apple products (the “Apple Customer Information”) and prohibits the proposed sale of such information,” it adds.
The iPhone manufacturer is not the only company raising objections at the potential sale of customer data. AT&T is also attempting to block the sale of data pertaining to its cellphone contracts, concerned that RadioShack “seemingly intends” to sell information obtained during the sale of their devices.
As Digital Trends reports, things may well turn out in Apple and AT&T’s favor. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan L. Shannan has not yet approved the sale (for which a hearing is scheduled for May 20), and has already indicated that he would not approve a sale of customer data if its legality is in question.
Not only that, but others have expressed their concern about the sale of any data, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton arguing that selling customer data is a “false, misleading, and deceptive business practice.” This references a line in RadioShack’s website privacy policy which allegedly stated, “At RadioShack, we respect your privacy. We do not sell our mailing list.”
Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com