A federal lawsuit alleges Toys R Us Inc. is breaching its own privacy policy by allowing market researchers access to consumer data gathered from the company’s Web site -- including information about children who visit the popular toymaker's site. The suit, filed in San Francisco, is one of the largest such legal actions addressing Internet privacy, the Associated Press reports.

The lawsuit follows a report published online by Interhack, a firm that produces Web-based security and privacy tools. The report alleges that Toys R Us, its affiliate Babies R Us site, and two sports retailers are allowing data collected from their sites to be analyzed by a third party. In this case, that outside firm is San Francisco-based Coremetrics -- a marketing firm that offers tracking systems.

The tracking system can then build personal profiles on Internet users, including their real names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information, Interhack claims.

Toys R Us is sending the data to Coremetrics despite their own posted privacy guidelines stating information gathered on Internet users will be kept confidential, the AP reports.

A Toys R Us spokeswoman denied the allegations, noting the company doesn't "sell, rent or trade visitor information to other parties," and that Coremetrics was hired only to analyze consumer data to improve the online shopping service. A Coremetrics executive said his firm doesn't resell or use the collected data in other manners, the AP reports.

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