The closure of a US gay teen magazine and website has created privacy concerns about its database of young, mostly gay, men. XY Magazine and its associated website went bankrupt earlier this year. Its creditors have applied for its one remaining valuable asset – a database of one million users. The Federal Trade Commission has expressed its concern, saying the sale "could violate Federal law". The XY database is especially sensitive because it offered its services to gay teenagers and young adults, many who still live at home and are yet to come out to their friends and family. The FTC says XY's privacy policy is simple, explicit, and clear. "Subscribers and members were told that their personal information would not be sold, shared, or given away to "anybody." This includes the names, addresses, profile information, and credit card information submitted by subscribers. It also includes unpublished articles that were submitted, for which permission to publish had not yet been secured." "Therefore, any sale or transfer of the data to a new company, new owner, or other third party would directly contravene the privacy representations and could constitute a deceptive practice by the original company or its principals." Simon Davies, director of the human rights campaign group Privacy International, told BBC News that while privacy policy was very clear, in the event of bankruptcy or winding-up "all bets are off". "Information shouldn't be used for a purpose other than for which it was originally intended," he said. "However, in the real world, when a firm goes into receivership, all bets are off when it comes to protection, because everyone's scrabbling for something of value. John Leyden writes on The Register, "The case raises wider questions of what happens to user-submitted data once a website goes 'titsup'. There are some precedents in this area and more can be expected, especially given the perilous state of the global economy and vague business plans of some Web 2.0 businesses."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 15th July 2010 - 9:48am