[Foundation-l] Cafepress alternatives?

Fri May 14 03:01:00 UTC 2004

It has been brought to my attention that Cafepress, which we currently use  
to sell Wikimedia Merchandise at http://www.cafepress.com/wikipedia , has  
some privacy issues. Specifically, they have a "web pixel clause":

  Pixels. Pixels, also called clear GIFs, are invisible files on Web pages  
  that you visit. If you visit a page on the Site that contains a Pixel,
  the Pixel communicates with your computer to determine, among other
  things, whether you have been to that page before or viewed a particular
  advertisement. We may use Pixels to serve advertising, enhance email
  advertising and track usage of the Site.

And a somewhat weak personal data disclosure policy:

  we may disclose your Personally Identifiable Information when we believe
  in good faith that it is required by any applicable law or legal
  process, or if we believe we need to disclose it to protect or enforce
  our rights *or the rights of our members, users, or other third
  parties.*

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/privacy.aspx

I'd like to solicit feedback on
- whether these privacy issues are acceptable from the point of view of  
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
- whether any alternatives exist (i.e. merchandise-on-demand of similar  
quality).

My point of view, right now, is that if no alternatives exist, we should  
continue using Cafepress, and add a link to the Wikipedia article about  
them on the page, where the privacy issues can then discussed from a  
neutral point of view. However, I'd like to bring this out into the open  
first. (Incidentally, I'll probably have to start that article as it  
doesn't seem to exist yet.)

Regards,

Erik