Amazon.Com Sues N.C. Dept. Of Revenue, for or Against?

In December the Department of Revenue (DOR) requested the last seven years, meaning 50 million in items, of North Carolina customers personal transactions and private information including addresses, names, e-mails and etc when doing business through Amazon.com. Amazon gave the DOR basic information.

A DOR employee from Oregon and one from North Carolina visited the Seattle, Washington Amazon office requesting further information surrounding N.C. transactions, including excessively, and private information in connection with the online business. Amazon gave them enough to satisfy their needs, or so they thought.

Soon after, a letter arrived requesting even more information with a deadline as the information would be considered for "examinations" through the tax process. That is when Amazon.com said enough is enough.

Amazon.com decided to sue North Carolina DOR for trying to break privacy laws of the U.S. Constitution and the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 according to the Washington lawsuit in pdf form.

Being a citizen of North Carolina this becomes a concern when online transactions and personal information, from the last seven years, are being explored by the DOR. But what do you think? Would you care if your state's DOR decided to ask Amazon.com for your personal information, including address, in addition to everything you purchased during the last seven years?

Amazon.com stands by the privacy rights of customers. It's one of the reasons why Amazon.com is one of the largest online retailers. Customers can legally trust Amazon.com with private information. Amazon wants to keep it that way.

As it may, Amazon has a good case, thus far. However, the DOR may take things to another level. For more on that potential court battle visit Amazon claims N.C. violating U.S. constitution.

Most likely the latest development does not have any connection with Gov. Beverly Perdue's budget proposal released today. Within the budget comes $1.2 billion in cuts along with pushing the Medicaid SWAT team, cuts in elderly in-home care, and so on. But the DOR has their own game to follow. Question is, who would you route for?

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Source(s): Self-Source; Washington, United States District Court Amazon.com v. North Carolina Department of Revenue Secretary Kenneth R. Lay, pdf