Sears Using Spyware to Monitor Your Personal Information
If you've signed up to receive e-mails from Sears, and then clicked on to join the retailer's "My SHC Community," it's likely you've been providing more information to more people than you thought. Even more troubling, it turns out that you're not just sharing information with Sears, but also with a company called comScore, which tracks and aggregates Internet browsing habits.Installing the software from Sears results in the installation of software called VoiceFive, which provides data to comScore. It's essentially spyware. comScore is the company behind the (disputed) numbers that indicated more people were stealing Radiohead's latest album than downloading it legally, as well as the statistics that showed GodTube was the fastest growing site last August.
These sorts of stats come from monitoring and compiling the habits of millions of Web surfers who are often unknowingly running the comScore software. Likewise, those who have installed the software through links from Sears may not actually know what they're participating in. Buried deep in the privacy statement users must agree to before signing up for SHC is this frightening statement:
Once you install our application, it monitors all of the Internet behavior that occurs on the computer on which you install the application, including both your normal web browsing and the activity that you undertake during secure sessions, such as filling a shopping basket, completing an application form or checking your online accounts, which may include personal financial or health information.Sounds scary, especially the part about monitoring "both your normal web browsing and the activity that you undertake during secure sessions, such as...checking your online accounts." The bit about "personal financial or health information" is scary, too. The above wording would certainly ward off anyone who actually reads these sorts of things, but we're guessing that the average Sears shopper isn't thoroughly scanning through the privacy statement.
According to BetaNews, the disclosure may be a little too well hidden to meet the intents of FTC regulations that require companies to make such spyware inclusion very clearly apparent. Many would agree that burying it in the middle of a multi-page privacy statement doesn't do much for clarity.
From BetaNews
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Fabian Fabrashay said 9:42PM on 1-27-2008
Well if there still adding comments here, just to let you know I still hate Sears. I have every since i bought a shirt for church wear and a sleave fell off in church. Also a bad color TV yrs ago.. What a nightmare they are to work with. Junk Junk.......... BEWARE, Fabian
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otmerh423 said 7:03PM on 2-06-2008
You mean that over 400 people voted that it was ok for Sears to do that???? Sounds like in inside job!
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joe malley said 3:11AM on 4-03-2008
sears spyware issue. Is this matter resolved? attorney researching this issue.
email any comments
malleylaw@gmail.com
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Janerone said 1:36PM on 1-03-2008
I went to the Sears site a few weeks ago and signed up---something I never do online. But I figured it was Sears and I could trust them. WRONG. My browser crashed and I can only access the internet through the back door now, until I get this program removed. Decades of consumer trust just went down the drain for Sears. I will never trust them again.
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Rob said 3:24PM on 1-03-2008
Sears = Corporation.
Corporations in USA = Fascists, more and more.
Ergo: We shouldn't be surprised by this Orwellian manipulation of our personal information by a corporation, in league with other corporations, that want to control us more.
"Sears has Everything"...including your most private information now.
I'll never shop there again now that I know this.
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rsbobbert@aol.com said 1:53PM on 1-03-2008
How do I kill this program, comScore?
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oneF8Lbyte said 2:33PM on 1-03-2008
Removal tool available at:
www.antispyware.com/glossary_details.php?ID=133755
Remember, In cyberspace you rarely notice
the one fatal byte
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Don Besiel said 3:18PM on 1-03-2008
there a several reputable freeware spyware/adware removal programs available online. 2 of which I use regularly with much satisfaction, Spybot search and destroy and Lavasoft's Adware. In my experience these 2 is all I have really ever needed to rid my comp's of these nasty little booger programs.
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marty said 5:02PM on 1-03-2008
wow I do get e-mails from them because I did sing on with them and have a sears card. cant even trust sears
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DR. SAUSAGE said 6:51PM on 1-04-2008
THE SEARS YOUR DAD AND GRAND DAD KNEW STOPPED EXISTING AROUND 1982.
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Sarah said 8:21PM on 1-04-2008
There's a great program called "Ad-Aware" from Lavasoft. You can download it online. It checks for spyware and constantly updates. Run it once a week or so and get that spyware crap off your computer! You'll be shocked at what's already there and how much faster your computer will work without it.
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JimB said 8:28PM on 1-04-2008
SO WHAT IS NEW WITH THAT .....
I stopped using three of my banks online service, even their bill paying, because they were doing the same thing.
The majority of business who have online sevice do the same thing.
By the big shots in Congress say it is alright, because it does not effect them.
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jmarksman2 said 8:35PM on 1-04-2008
You have far more "Important" things to worry about in America.
From the FBI Web site:
Inner City the males, ages 14 to 35, commit 56,6% of all violent crime in America, while they comprise less than 3,5% of the population, and contribute less than 1/10 of1% to the gross national product. Please join the National association of black law officer's and tell your Congressman and Senator you want money from homeland security allocated to clean the “Criminal element” out of the inner cities.
Call now, before your to mother is “Beaten to death” for a “Couple of dollars”, and your teenage daughter is repeatedly “Gang Raped” and “Sodomized” while your wife is forced to watch, or your son is “Murdered”, just because some “Under privileged” Young gentleman thought he looked at him the “Wrong way”. CALL NOW!
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Linda said 8:56PM on 1-04-2008
Another nail in Sears coffin.
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Hank said 8:47PM on 1-04-2008
You can always use an install of Firefox Portable on a thumb drive and delete the cookies all the time as well. I have not been a Sears customer in a long time. When I was younger I had a Sears card that had a high limit, I used it until I realized the interest rate! I paid it off and shredded the card.
http://www.myauctionforums.com
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undrgrndgirl said 8:55PM on 1-04-2008
actually jmarksman...most crime, violent and otherwise is perpetrated by corporate america...check this out, i dare you...
http://www.alternet.org/story/54093/
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catsrule16 said 8:57PM on 1-04-2008
Remeber Sears and Kmart merged. Kmart site may also be monitored.
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Bones said 9:23AM on 1-05-2008
oneF8Lbyte's link to removal software looks very suspicious - I seriously doubt that removing this software can damage your computer unless you use the software these folks generously provide
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dninspect said 9:05PM on 1-04-2008
I use to shop at Sears till they wouldn't give me a $5.00 rebate which i qualified for.now i say to heck with Sears
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losaban said 9:16PM on 1-04-2008
Since Sears is doing this one must question how many other businesses are doing it as well.
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