ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – An Internet company was accused Thursday of selling e-mail addresses in what may be the biggest deliberate breach of Internet privacy ever, according to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer on Thursday accused Gratis Internet of selling personal information obtained from millions of consumers despite a promise of confidentiality. The consumers thought they were simply registering to see a Web site offering free iPod music players or DVD movies and video games, said Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione. On sign-up pages, Gratis promised it “does not … sell/rent e-mails.”

The civil suit was filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

There was no immediate comment from Gratis, based in Washington, D.C., Thursday. But in a statement after Spitzer’s related lawsuit of March 12, a Gratis spokesmen said the company wasn’t involved in any inappropriate practices.

In that case, Datran Media of New York City, a leading e-mail marketer, was accused of using unauthorized personal data “mined” by other firms from about 6 million e-mail addresses nationwide. Datran agreed to reform its practices under a $1.1 million settlement.

“Unless checked now, companies that collect and sell information on consumers will continue to find ways to erode the basic standards that protect privacy in the Internet age,” Spitzer said.

Spitzer said Gratis’ promises to consumers included: “We will never give out, sell or lend your name or information to anyone,” and “We will never lend, sell or give out for any reason your e-mail address or personal information.”

Spitzer’s “data mining” investigation began last year amid reports of companies compiling and selling marketing lists. Gratis owns and operates Web sites that offer free merchandise for registering their e-mail addresses.

The state fraud lawsuit accuses Gratis’ owners, Peter Martin and Robert Jewell, of privacy violations in 2004 and 2005 by selling to three independent e-mail marketers access to lists of millions. Hundreds of millions of e-mail solicitations then followed. Spitzer claims that Gratis wrongfully shared as many as 7 million “user records,” creating the largest deliberate breach of a privacy policy ever discovered by U.S. law enforcement.

Spitzer said Gratis tried to assure state investigators that “at all times during its existence … Gratis has never sold, rented, or lent e-mail addresses or personal information of its users to any third-party and the company has always maintained control over and ownership of such information.”