Amazon ‘Technical Error’ Exposed Customer Names and Emails

Security issue comes days before Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Amazon Jeff Bezos
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A “technical error” on Amazon’s website exposed customer names and emails, the company said in an email to customers impacted by the issue on Tuesday, while providing few other details.

“We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted,” an Amazon spokesperson told TheWrap.

The company declined to share how many customers were impacted by the error but said it was not the result of a security breach. Amazon did not mention how long customer information has been exposed or where it had been shared.

“We’re contacting you to let you know that our website inadvertently disclosed your email address due to a technical error,” said Amazon in the email to customers. “The issue has been fixed. This is not a result of anything you have done, and there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action.”

The email’s subject line was: “Important Information about your Amazon.com Account.”

The security error precedes two major shopping days in Black Friday and Cyber Monday — days that are extremely important to Amazon, the world’s dominant e-commerce company. Amazon’s 2017 Cyber Monday sales set a single-day company record — although Amazon was mum on how much revenue it actually drove, only revealing “hundreds of millions” of products were sold.

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