Walt Disney Co., the majority owners of online toy retailer Toysmart.com, said Tuesday it has offered to purchase the company's customer list to ensure consumers' privacy.
The announcement came a day after the Federal Trade Commission sued Toysmart in U.S. District Court in Boston, claiming the company broke its promise to customers that it would never share private information about them.
Toysmart ceased operations in May and began soliciting bids for its assets, including customer lists and profiles.
In a prepared statement, Disney said that despite the fact it is not involved in the lawsuit, it is working with the FTC to ensure the list stays confidential.
"If the bankruptcy court ... allows us to purchase the list, we will do so, and retire the list," Disney said. "If we are not allowed to purchase the list, we will urge the court, as the Federal Trade Commission has, to permit a sale only to a purchaser of all the assets of Toysmart who will maintain the confidentiality of the information contained in the list."
Toysmart's decision to solicit bids for its customer lists and profiles drew protests from Internet privacy advocates. They claimed that if Toysmart were allowed to sell its list, it would open the door for other failing dot-coms to sell their customer lists for cash.
The FTC said it was unclear whether any of those lists had been sold.
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