If you bought a dildo in Denver, the government must legally be told
Online retailers in America will soon be required by law to disclose to state governments what purchases their customers – meaning, you – have made.
That extraordinary situation is the result of a long-running legal case that the US Supreme Court this week refused to hear. This means a decision by the Tenth Circuit [PDF] requiring out-of-state retailers to report to the Colorado state government the details of all purchases – including what that purchase was and who bought it – stands.
So if you bought a dildo in Denver, some bureaucrat is going to be informed about it.
Colorado is not the only state pushing the requirement. Vermont will also make the same requirement three months after Colorado starts imposing the law. And other states including Alabama, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming have approved similar rules.
Unsurprisingly, businesses and privacy advocates are up in arms.
The executive director of NetChoice – a trade association of e-commerce businesses that includes eBay, PayPal, Google and Facebook as members – Steve DelBianco, said the decision "set the stage for a rude privacy shock to American consumers."
"State governments will receive data about residents' purchases, including personal health products and politically-themed books and movies," DelBianco noted.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/13/us_purchase_government_spying/
= new reply since forum marked as read
