Private Eye Insists Domino's Shares Customer Database

And he says he has proof.

Steven Rambam, the founder and CEO of Pallorium, Inc., a licensed Investigative agency, said, "I personally have seen Domino's and Papa John's databases used by law enforcement. It has nothing whatsoever to do with a theft of Domino's or something directly involving Domino's. It was a fugitive whose cell phone number was known and they plugged it in to see where the stuff was being delivered."

He went on to say, "The database is their [Domino's] own proprietary business record in which they are entitled to do whatever the heck they want with them. And they are doing something that is a public service.

He then sent the following email to elaborate:

I stand by the statement, "U.S. Marshals Service, the New York Police Department and collection agencies are using it to track people down." "It" being delivery data from pizza deliveries by Domino's and their competitors.

I have personally seen, on more than one occasion, Domino's data used to track down fugitives via determining pizza delivery address(es) that were cross-referenced with a fugitive's cell phone number. On none of those occasions did I observe that Domino's required "a subpoena from a law enforcement agency," though, perhaps, they could have been promised one, or received a National Security Letter, etc, etc. (Unlikely, in my opinion.) Within the past 30 days, I have seen "pizza delivery data" used during an investigation to confirm a residence address.

I certainly agree that Domino's does not need to "apologize" for their conduct. But frankly, if I was their public relations spokesperson, I would brag about Domino's history of assisting in taking bad folks off the streets.

I have also seen Domino's competitors — Papa John's, for example — provide similar assistance.

Regarding commercial use, Domino's may be not be "selling or giving away" their entire customer file as a bulk data dump, but I have been reliably informed that significant portions of their data, most significantly: CNA [Customer Name and Address] connected to purchasers' phone numbers, does find its way into marketing and telephone number lists. In the past, our online subsidiary has been offered large 100M and 300M record databases by data aggregators, which contained "current" pizza-delivery data, including telephone numbers, email addresses and I.P. addresses (which I assume came from web orders). Again, I see nothing wrong with that. It's the pizza sellers' data, and they can do with it whatever they want.

BTW, I have noticed that Domino's statements to the press always leave a certain amount of wiggle room. They never say that "no portion" of their customer data files — i.e. name and address c-r with telephone numbers — is ever shared or used to update or correct other marketing lists. They always comment only on sale of the entire list. Can you get a "no wiggle room" statement from them?

Steven.

(Steven Rambam, Director.)
(for: Pallorium, Inc.)

Mr. Rambam just returned from an international trip and said that he would send supporting material sometime Monday on Domino's sharing its database. He stated that the CNET article was very accurate with the exception of one slight misquote. "The correct statement is that Domino's has 'ONE OF the biggest consumer databases,' not the biggest," he said. "I am in fact aware of bigger databases and much bigger data compilers.

UPDATE, Sept 16, 2008: In regards to third-party evidence of Domino's sharing parts of its database, Mr. Steven Rambam wrote an email last week to this journal stating, "If I have time on Mon[day] I'll try to find the folder with the pizza db[database] articles." Mr. Rambam wrote today, Tuesday, "I said that I'd look for it this week. To be honest, so far I've been too swamped getting out a Declaration for a trial to do anything else."

Information pending.

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Related reading:

• Domino's Says Customer Database Too Private to Share
• Police and Collection Agencies Love Domino's Database of Pizza Lovers