Build-A-Bear’s private information seduction system – Boing Boing

Cyberlawyer Denise Howell sez, “As far as I could tell, the same parents driving themselves to distraction with fear over their evening chardonnays about MySpace and FaceBook are willingly helping their kids fork over a slew of personal data when they visit Build-A-Bear. It’s hard to fault them too much though, as the computers there masquerade as anything but a corporate info-racket.”

Read on for a slightly sobering look at the world of cybermarketing to kids: Mom and Dad don’t worry too much about personal information getting into the hands of marketeers when it’s being entered on such cute computers by their children. Some of my Illinois nieces are into Build-a-Bear, which has always struck me as a slightly huckstery product.