RSSSears found to be using spyware to track visitors
By Ed Oswald | Published January 2, 2008, 4:26 PM
Security researches are criticizing retailer Sears for not adequately describing its efforts to track the behaviors of those who provide the company with their contact information.
The process begins after the customer provides Sears.com with an e-mail address. An e-mail will appear in the customer's inbox inviting them to join a program called "My SHC Community."
Sears says participating in the program is on the customer's terms, and discloses in the e-mail that it will ask the user to download software from its partner VoiceFive. Terms in the software say that the company will confidentially track users' browsing habits.
However, what Sears' e-mail doesn't disclose is that it not only tracks browsing behavior on Sears.com, but all data on where participants go on the Web. Disclosure of this does not appear until a user scrolls through a large portion of the privacy statement and user license agreement.
There, what Sears says it will track may be troubling to some: The software "monitors all of the Internet behavior that occurs on the computer on which you install the application, including ... filling a shopping basket, completing an application form, or checking your ... personal financial or health information."
The VoiceFive software comes from TMRG, which is not mentioned in any of the literature provided by Sears. Packet sniffing led researchers to believe that the software uses comScore technology to track user habits.
With the convoluted method in which Sears discloses the behavior of its software, it may actually run afoul of FTC regulations regarding spyware disclosure. The agency requires any tracking software to be clearly explained, which the retailer does not do, researchers argue.
"The Sears SHC installation of ComScore falls far short of these rules. The limited SHC disclosure provided by email lacks the required specificity as to the nature, purpose, and effects of the ComScore software," spyware expert Benjamin Edelman wrote on his blog Tuesday.
"Nor is that disclosure 'unavoidable,' in that the key text appears midway through a paragraph, without a heading or even a topic sentence to alert users to the important (albeit vague) information that follows."
To its defense, Sears said it "goes to great lengths" to disclose the nature of its program, a claim that Edelman "emphatically" disagreed with.
This doesn't surprise me one bit. I stopped giving Sears my money after I'd found out how many people they'd scammed through stealing their tool ideas just to turn around and slap a "Craftsman" logo on the tool. I've been waiting for years for Sears to tank. Good riddence, Sears.
Score: 0
So... How do I get rid of this Sears software??
Score: 0
I work for Sears. I have always believed in and supported the company I work for as I believed they provided a valuable service to people. After reading this today it is making me, quite literally, sick. It saddens me to see that a large company such as Sears, who at one time did take very good care with their customers, has done something like this in a way that so blatantly violates the trust that Sears customers once had in the store. Sears used to do the honorable thing when it came to situations that adversly affected its customers. One can only hope they do so now and voluntarily cease this violation of their customers and the sneaky underhanded means in which they are doing it. I would expect, at the very least, an emailed acknowledgement of this to every affected customer with an apology and means of removing the SPYware they have unknowingly installed on the computers of many. Many of whom are also Employees of Sears. They may find they will not only lose much of there customer base, but also many of thier emplyees. I for one, as an affected customer and an employee, will leave the company if this isn't made right. I am only one, but I imagine that others with similar beliefs and ethics will respond in the same fashion.
Score: 0
Sears simply got caught with their searsucker down.
"i recall before the walmarts and kmarts, sears and jcpenny were the mega marts. then came along the woolworths, where the salespeople and waitresses knew your interests as a courtesy and not an invasion of privacy."
Score: 0
All data?! Goodbye, Sears. (Oops, I said that over a decade ago. Nevermind.)
Score: 0
Why go to Sears when you can buy the same exact tools, lawnmowers, etc at Kmart for a lot less money! (Both owned by the same company)
There is a harbor freight store 2Min from where I live. I shop there first before
I drive all the way to the mall.
Its amazing Sears is still around.
Score: 0
Menards Tool Shop brand is great for the money, they don't break and cost a third of Craftsman tools, plus they have a lifetime warranty.
Snap-On and Matco tools are for idiots who like to go into hick for overpriced tools. Most of Snap-On's tools are rebadged Black and Decker products.
I found that out when I paid $200 for a Snap-On cordless drill and saw the exact same one by B&D for less than half. I aksed the Snap-On rep about and he confirmed it was a B&D drill with a Snap-On logo.
Score: 0
how else can they survive. When was the last time you went to sears? Besides to get accessories or parts for your refrigerator?
Score: 0
Here in NYC, its only store is SO depressing-- small product selection, wide open empty spaces... non-competitive pricing...
Score: 0
Good thing I haven't shopped at Sears in ages.
Score: 0
Companies like this should be fined heaps.
Score: 0
Yet another reason to switch to a Mac.
Score: 0
So you think if the mac and PC traded global market share places then it wouldn't happen on a mac ?
Score: 0
I couldn't have said it better.
Score: 0
I don't agree. Stupid comment.
"owning a mac is like only being able to drive on 5% of the roads"
Score: 0
so you agree that his counter argument is correct? Which would mean that you agree that your first comment is wrong? Because that is exactly what would happen if mac based PCs had more market share over windows/linux based PCs You know they don't sell 8tracks anymore? 'Cause no on uses them, you know why people don't write virus' (or many of them) for the mac os, because 10 people use them.
Score: 0
There's no contradiction in the first few comments, 9h. If Macs had 90% share, maybe there would be Mac spyware, maybe not, but it makes no difference, because Apple will not have 90% market share in any reasonable foreseeable future. To the extent that Mac's safety is from small market share, it is an advantage and will remain so, for all practical purposes. In fact, I would suggest that the best computer a Windows fan could buy is a Mac. Run Windows under the "parallels" environment, it runs at full native speed. Just disable all internet access from the WIndows side of things. Use just two Mac programs... one for web browsing and one for email. Use your favorite PC programs for everything else. Voila, the safest PC environment you can buy, because you can keep the PC side off the net, which is the source of greatest danger to it. Unfortunately, it's not a cheap way to go, since you have to buy the Mac and Parallels and a separate copy of Windows, but if you can afford a few hundred extra for a more secure PC environment, it's arguably the best solution.
Score: 0
except when something breaks. then you just need to throw it out the window(no pun intended), go by another and do it all over again. ya!
Score: 0
Sears is online?.... Sears is still around?
Score: 0
You are joking right?
Score: 0
Trust me I haven't bought from them in years, their stores are empty and I prefer Mac*** or other retailers because of their selection.
Score: 0
cant they stick to selling ugly clothes and overpriced tools?
Score: 0
What say we write a law that sends every one of these spying and lying corporate CEOs to prison for a minimum of five years for this ridiculous crap?
Score: 0