Washington Post - hooked on phonics violates posted privacy policy

Selling the demographic on children's registration data violates the spirit of COPPA
as well, but I have no details on that.

Washington Post
Web Firms Choose Profit Over Privacy
By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 1, 2003; Page A01

To parents interested in buying the popular Hooked on Phonics learn-to-read
programs, the company made a firm promise on its Web site: It would never
sell or rent their personal information to other marketers.

But that pledge was empty. In the pages of a marketing trade publication,
Gateway Learning Corp., the product's California-based parent company, was
advertising to rent the list of Hooked on Phonics buyers to other marketers.

At a price of $95 per 1,000 names, companies could arrange to have
unsolicited advertising sent to 105,936 people who bought Hooked on Phonics
in the past year. Included in the information made available to other
marketers: ages of the buyers' children.