Black Friday bruise: Amazon technical error discloses email addresses, customer names

Amazon's timing couldn't be worse, coming just ahead of Black Friday. But the e-commerce titan did admit that it inadvertently disclosed email addresses and names of some customers due to a technical error, and sent emails to those customers out of an abundance of caution. Even so, Amazon insists that there was no data breach of its website or computer systems. In a statement supplied to USA TODAY via email, a company spokesperson said, "We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted." Such customers were told that they did not have to change their email passwords or take any other steps.