How much does 114 million customers’ files and 25 million email addresses cost? Well, for Dick’s Sporting Goods it was a bid for $15 million, payable to Sports Authority.
Although consumers have started to become more wary of where their information is being spread, they might still be taken aback by this news. Sports Authority filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, and last week commenced the bidding on all of its intellectual property, most importantly, consumer data.
Hemu Nigram, a cybersecurity expert, told The Los Angeles Times that this auction “is raising awareness of another way customer data can be sold without even thinking about it.”
This trend of selling customer data isn’t an entirely new concept. Radio Shack attempted a similar stunt when it went bankrupt. However was stopped by an intervention from the Federal Trade Commision.
Although big companies going bankrupt isn’t a common occurrence, online consumers have to be careful as to where their information is being spread, and what the company’s policy is on passing on this information.
With consumers being more hesitant on passing on their information freely, companies will be required to ensure that the customer’s data is safe, if they want to retain customer trust and loyalty.