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Ottawa resident Arthur Stewart said he was “surprised” and “concerned” to learn that a package he returned to Amazon’s fulfillment center in Mississauga, Ont., was recently being sold at a clearance store in Toronto, labeled shipping showing your full name. Home address and telephone number clearly visible.
“I have no problem with the fact that Amazon or any other retailer can resell things that are returned or things that don’t sell,” Stewart said in an interview.
“My problem is that they are not taking adequate measures to protect people’s privacy.”
He is one of several Amazon shoppers CBC identified whose returned items were being sold at clearance stores in Toronto with their personal information still clearly visible on the package, putting them at risk of identity theft, a leading privacy expert says.
A CBC Toronto investigation found personal information of three dozen people displayed at two locations of liquidation retailer Top Binz.
Top Binz, which has two stores in Scarborough and another in Thornhill, buys truckloads of returned and overstocked items from Amazon and other online retailers through a distributor, and resells them to the public at low prices.
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Top Binz says that in the future it will check that all personal information is removed from the products it sells.
But a former provincial privacy commissioner says the situation raises concerns about how online retailers like Amazon, as well as other companies involved in clearing returned items, are handling personal data.
The current federal privacy commissioner’s office says it will investigate the issue, while Amazon says it is launching an internal investigation of its own.
36 names, addresses on display
CBC Toronto visited two Top Binz locations in November after a customer raised concerns about their privacy.
Inside the stores, customers peruse bins filled with all types of consumer products, from children’s toys to household goods and electronics. Products are displayed out of the box, in the original product packaging or in delivery boxes, some with shipping labels still intact, and are sold at fixed prices.
Of the 36 items tagged with personal information that CBC Toronto found inside Top Binz stores, two-thirds were linked to Amazon. The remaining third had shipping labels with personal information visible, but it was unclear which retailer the item was returned to.
CBC Toronto contacted several buyers whose contact information was visible.
“I have a lot of concerns about privacy,” said Ken Bachmeier, a Kingsville, Ont., resident who recently returned a TV stand purchased through Amazon.
“I don’t like… having the information out there for anyone to access,” Bachmeier said.
“These people who are there can discover a lot of things with a little information.”
Top Binz is a clearance store that sells returned and overstock items from Amazon and other retailers. CBC discovered that he was selling dozens of items in boxes with shipping labels showing the names, addresses and, in some cases, phone numbers of the original buyers. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC)
It’s not just Amazon products that end up in clearance stores.
Teresa Coppens’ name, address and telephone number were visible on a box bearing the name of a company that sells Dutch plants and flower bulbs.
“I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about your personal identity being hijacked… and that kind of thing always worried me,” said Coppens, who lives in Millbrook, Ont. “It never occurred to me that resellers would keep that information for everyone to see.”
Federal privacy laws generally require organizations to obtain consent before collecting personal information and disclosing it to third parties, and to delete it when it is no longer necessary.
Exposing personal identifiers, such as home addresses, is a privacy violation that can leave customers exposed to identity theft, said Ann Cavoukian, who served three terms as Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner.
“Anyone should know today that personal identifiers linked to anything without their consent, which is obviously the case here, can sometimes cause incredible harm to those people, beyond the simple invasion of privacy,” said Cavoukian, who is now executive director of the Global Center for Privacy and Security by Design.
“Don’t do it, especially if you’re a big company like Amazon. You should know better.”
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Amazon begins internal investigation
Binz’s main owner, Amjad Atieh, said he buys between 60,000 and 80,000 returned and surplus products per week from two suppliers who source their stock directly from retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.
The industry has grown along with the rise of online shopping.
While there isn’t much Canadian data available and Amazon declined to share its returns figures, online shoppers in the U.S. returned more than $212 billion worth of products in 2022, which is about 16 .5 percent of all online sales that year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Items that decrease in value once returned can be costly for Amazon and its third-party sellers to manage, according to Omar Fares, a professor in the department of retail management at Metropolitan University of Toronto.
“Every hand that touches the product is a financial loss,” Fares said. It can also be a logistical challenge to manage returned inventory, she said, and “in some cases, it’s better to get rid of it, even in the face of potential loss.”
Atieh said Top Binz receives skate items from its suppliers and resells them “as is.” He did not reveal the names of the suppliers.
“Usually, if we find something [with a shipping label]we took it and threw it away,” Atieh said.
“You can’t check every single box.”
Amazon says its contracts with liquidators require them to delete customers’ personal information before reselling packages to third parties. Amazon says it has no direct relationship with settlement media like Top Binz. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
Following inquiries from CBC Toronto, Atieh said he planned to hire more staff in the future to ensure personal information is removed from items before they are sold.
Amazon sells returned merchandise on its website through a platform called Amazon warehouse. It also sells large pallets of items returned to liquidators.
Spokeswoman Barbara Agrait said the company has contracts with “reputable liquidators” that require them to delete customers’ personal information before reselling it, as well as “robust processes” and regular audits to ensure compliance.
“Our expectation is that our partners will delete customer personal information prior to any resale, and we are disappointed to learn that may not be happening,” Agrait said. “We have launched an internal investigation into this matter and will take appropriate action based on our findings.”
Vito Pilieci, a spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, said the federal watchdog has not received any complaints about online shoppers’ personal information being displayed at clearance stores. However, Pilieci said the office would contact Amazon for more information.