Legal fight over online database of thousands of gay men
Thu. July 15, 2010 12:11 AM by GoPride.com News Staff
Washington, D.C. -
The owners of a now-defunct website and magazine are fighting with creditors over the only valuable asset left: a database listing names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers of thousands of gay men.
The database was generated between 1996-2007 by the publishers of XY Magazine and XY.com.
When owner Peter Ian Cummings filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, he listed the customer database as one of his only tangible assets.
It's definitely valuable, but privacy experts say it's crazy to barter over a list that could out thousands of gay men.
"The selling off of private information, gathered under the supposition of privacy, is bad enough," blogger Curt Hopkins wrote.
"Even worse if you're forced into it. And positively untenable when the information is connected to kids who are dealing with a dawning sexual reality that in some instances is even more fraught than what straight kids go through," he added.
The Federal Trade Commission also argues that selling or trading the list could violate privacy laws.
The database was generated between 1996-2007 by the publishers of XY Magazine and XY.com.
When owner Peter Ian Cummings filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, he listed the customer database as one of his only tangible assets.
It's definitely valuable, but privacy experts say it's crazy to barter over a list that could out thousands of gay men.
"The selling off of private information, gathered under the supposition of privacy, is bad enough," blogger Curt Hopkins wrote.
"Even worse if you're forced into it. And positively untenable when the information is connected to kids who are dealing with a dawning sexual reality that in some instances is even more fraught than what straight kids go through," he added.
The Federal Trade Commission also argues that selling or trading the list could violate privacy laws.