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Ever since my days of helping people to deal with bad debt situations, I’ve developed a hatred for Sears. While hate might be a strong word, it is not strong enough for the way that Sears has treated consumers with debt problems. While the ads used to be about the “Friendlier side of Sears”, I’m still searching for it.

In fact, Sears is the only store I boycott. I haven’t shopped in a Sears for years. I bet they are quaking but I feel better. Personally I’d rather buy leaking nuclear waste from a one armed man with bloody, drippy lupus than give Sears any of my money. I dislike Sears so much that years ago I even cancelled my credit card with them, even though it was my oldest credit card and helped my credit score.

Historically, Sears would make little adjustments to monthly payments when people got into debt trouble and they used to pay credit counseling groups less, the more they returned to Sears each month. Sears was also one of the early creditors that started treating Consumer Credit Counseling Office like nothing more than debt collectors. But I digress.

Well Sears has done it again and restored my faith in maintaining my boycott.

Apparently Ben Edelman, a Harvard researcher, agreed with an earlier assessment that Sears Holding Corporation, owner of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart, makes the pitch in an email sent to people shortly after they provide their address at Sears.com.

Clicking the “Join” button invokes a dialog that requests the person’s name, address and household size before installing ComScore spyware that monitors every site visited on the computer.

A response from a Sears vice president vigorously defends the practice, saying the retailer “goes to great lengths to describe the tracking aspect” of the software. He also claims a progress bar during the installation of the software gives users an easy way to back out if they change their minds, but Edelman said no such bar was displayed during his tests.

It’s not that Sears fails to notify users it intends to spy on them. Indeed, the email sent to users states that the application “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.”

Apparently the warning message comes on page 10 of 54 of the privacy statement. Sears already knows that consumers don’t read the fine print of contracts and agreements so unless they were trying to hide this information, why bury it on page 10 of a 2,971 word notice? It seems like a fairly important and relevant point. Something that should be on page one maybe? But then, maybe a million people would not have said yes and allowed the ComScore product to collect data that was then sold for about $50 million a year.

“There’s a small group of people in universities who’ve taken it upon themselves to take an issue with our software,” said Dan Hess, senior vice president of industry analysis at ComScore. “We’re trying to make them fully aware of the nature of our (products and services). It’s a completely voluntary program.”

The company, which tracks a user’s clicks and other surfing habits, claims to have over a million users of its software and is the only major online market research company that works with third parties. ComScore sells its market research to over 500 major companies such as the Ford Motor company, and also operates with customers in a wide range of other industries such as the pharmaceutical, health care, financial services, and telecom sectors.

I find it hard to believe that over a million PC users agreed to be ‘exhibitionists’ and have their surfing habits tracked and reported back for sale as market research even if the data is aggregated. Reports also state that the tracking software takes virtual photos of every Web page viewed by its 1 million participants, even transactions completed in secure sessions, like shopping or online checking. “Oh baby, Oh baby.”

If you want to learn more about this, read this article from Forbes.com.

All I know is that if I had installed something like that on a million computers and could track everything people typed on their computers, I bet I’d get my ass kicked. When Sears does it, it is called market research, when Bobs Boobarama does it, it’s spyware. The only difference, better lawyers for Sears.

(Illustration by dudemjk)

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Steve

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