RadioShack is auctioning off personal customer data

With its recent bankruptcy filing, it’s to be expected that RadioShack close most of its stores and sell off the majority of its assets. However, while selling leases and trademarks won’t surprise anyone, the company is also selling something much more controversial, perhaps even illegal: customer information. Obviously people don’t seem to like this and the company is already facing lawsuits in Tennessee and Texas. 

RadioShack’s recent bankruptcy filing means that it has to close nearly 2,000 stores and sell off many of its assets. Some of those assets are to be expected, like trademarks and store leases. But other assets might come as a shock to consumers — assets like personal customer information and email addresses. As Bloomberg reports, RadioShack is offering up more than 13 million email addresses and 65 million physical addresses to the highest bidder. And that’s not sitting too well with the Attorneys General in some states, where they contend that the sale is a violation of consumer rights. Both Texas and Tennessee have joined a lawsuit to stop the sale of the customer information. They apparently took literally the signs in RadioShack that read: “We pride ourselves on not selling our private mailing list.” How quaint.