Amazon confirms exposing customer email addresses

On Wednesday, 21 November, online retailer Amazon announced that a website glitch accidentally exposed names and email addresses of some of the e-commerce giant’s customers.

According to the company, there was no breach of Amazon systems or its website, and passwords were kept safe.

It’s unclear at this time how many Amazon users were affected by the issue, which exposed only emails and names to third parties as Amazon declined to disclose the extent of the software slip-up.

“We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted,” an Amazon spokesman said in response to an AFP inquiry.

As a precaution, messages were sent to customers affected by the website mishap letting them know their names and email addresses may have been disclosed by the Amazon website.

Amazon’s legit been sending out notices saying sorry we exposed your email address. Seems likely related to this https://t.co/21cRB2dHTk… Besides the brevity, what’s giving people pause is they sign the email https://t.co/KDiteRFaeR Why cap the “a” and why no https://? Strange pic.twitter.com/mwty3GmCN1

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) November 21, 2018

The disclosure came on the cusp of the year-end holiday shopping season, with retailers online and in real-world shops offering “Black Friday” bargains pegged to the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.

Amazon is the “undisputed e-commerce leader” in the US, with a 48 percent share of online sales here this year expected to equate to some $252 billion, according to analysts at eMarketer.

The market tracker forecast that total e-commerce sales in the US would jump 16.6 percent to $123.73 billion this holiday season as compared with the same period last year.

Edited by Neo Sesinye
Follow Neo Sesinye on Twitter
Follow IT News Africa on Twitter