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)
Janerone @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:36PM
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.
rsbobbert@aol.com @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:53PM
How do I kill this program, comScore?
oneF8Lbyte @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:33PM
Removal tool available at:
www.antispyware.com/glossary_details.php?ID=133755
Remember, In cyberspace you rarely notice
the one fatal byte
Don Besiel @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:18PM
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.
Rob @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:24PM
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.
marty @ Jan 3rd 2008 5:02PM
wow I do get e-mails from them because I did sing on with them and have a sears card. cant even trust sears
DR. SAUSAGE @ Jan 4th 2008 6:51PM
THE SEARS YOUR DAD AND GRAND DAD KNEW STOPPED EXISTING AROUND 1982.
Sarah @ Jan 4th 2008 8:21PM
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.
JimB @ Jan 4th 2008 8:28PM
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.
jmarksman2 @ Jan 4th 2008 8:35PM
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!
Hank @ Jan 4th 2008 8:47PM
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
undrgrndgirl @ Jan 4th 2008 8:55PM
actually jmarksman...most crime, violent and otherwise is perpetrated by corporate america...check this out, i dare you...
http://www.alternet.org/story/54093/
Linda @ Jan 4th 2008 8:56PM
Another nail in Sears coffin.
catsrule16 @ Jan 4th 2008 8:57PM
Remeber Sears and Kmart merged. Kmart site may also be monitored.
dninspect @ Jan 4th 2008 9:05PM
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
losaban @ Jan 4th 2008 9:16PM
Since Sears is doing this one must question how many other businesses are doing it as well.
Mama Dee @ Jan 4th 2008 9:35PM
DO NOT SHOP ANYWHERE, WHERE YOU MUST BECOME A MEMBER IN ORDER TO BUY !!!!!
I WILL NOT SHOP AT PLACES THAT WANT MY INFORMATION.
ALL THEY NEED IS BILLING INFO (no phone) AND
SHIPPING INFO PLUS AN EMAIL ADDRESS. BEYOND THAT
CANCIL YOUR AGREEMENT WITH THEM.
steve price @ Jan 4th 2008 9:36PM
SEARS SHOULD BE CALLED - K-MART II SINCE K-MART OWNS SEARS
bill @ Jan 4th 2008 9:44PM
I stopped shopping at Sears years ago, they tried to force me into using the Discovery card, felt like big brother was telling what I could or could not do...can understand why they will go belly up in a few years...
Susie @ Jan 4th 2008 10:24PM
What's the saying: "....when good people do nothing..." It's time to DO something besides complaining about big brother! It's time to take back our freedoms by showing corporate America we have POWER by voting and voting with our pocketbook! Tell everyone you know not to shop at Sears or KMart! I get Thomasville emails and theirs are the only ones my antivirus software is dangerous! How can WE make a difference???? Your suggestions, America?!