In a total affront to any and all privacy The North Carolina Department Of Revenue FLEW to Seattle to demand Amazon product all records for purchases by North Carolina residents from 2003-2010. Note I capitalized “FLEW” because instead of licking a stamp or using a courier service some enterprising soul in Raleigh figure out how to get a free vacation on you on me by hand delivering the demand letter to Amazon. So not only does the state want to know what you have been reading but they want you to pay for them to find it out while they take cross country flights, stay in hotels and have a nice dinner!

Amazon seeks a declaration that the DOR’s ongoing demand for information that will disclose the names, addresses and purchasing habits of Amazon’s North Carolina customers violates the rights of Amazon to sell, and its customers to purchase, books, movies, music, and other lawful expressive content free from government intrusion into the customers’ reading, viewing and listening choices.� These rights are secured under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Article I, sections 4 and 5 of the Washington State Constitution, and federal law.� The DOR’s demand for the identity of customers who purchased video material also violates the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, 18 U.S.C. § 2710.� Declaratory relief from this Court is necessary to avoid piecemeal litigation or inconsistent rulings in the event other states make similar demands for customer data.

Of course Amazon has turned around and filed an immediate suit to block this request as it flies in the face of any number of court rulings that such information is private however now guess what, we get to send lawyers and their team to Seattle to argue that North Carolina does have a right to this information. Not only are you being asked to provide the state with Federally protected information but your being forced to pay to argue against your own personal rights in a court clear across the country!

The DOR has no business seeking to uncover the identity of Amazon’s customers who purchased expressive content … let alone associating customers’ names and addresses with the specific books, music, and video content that they have purchased,” Amazon wrote. “The collection and disclosure of the customer data … will link those purchases directly to the customers’ names and addresses, exposing their otherwise private reading, viewing, listening and other personal choices to government scrutiny

Please everyone take the time to read this great post on cnet which highlights exactly why North Carolina has no legal right to this information and contact your Representatives in Raleigh immediately. This is not a Left or Right side of the issue debate this is your personal privacy, protected by multiple Federal laws and court cases which the fools in Raleigh don’t seem to care about. While you have your Representative on the phone ask them who went to Seattle, did they fly coach and at what cost, where did they stay and eat and what was the final tally for hand delivering a letter to Amazon.

ACTION ALERT…NC Gov Bev Perdue Demands To Know What you Bought at Amazon

Amazon: NC bid to track taxes violates free speech

To read the full complaint Amazon has filed click here: Amazon v. Kenneth Lay

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Business News, Political, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.