FTC settles tracking softward dispute with Sears

“Sears Holdings Management Corporation – owned by Sears, Roebuck and Company and Kmart Management Corporation – has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to disclose adequately the scope of consumers’ personal information it collected via a downloadable software application. According to the FTC’s administrative complaint, Sears represented to consumers that the software would track their “online browsing.” The FTC charges that the software would also monitor consumers’ online secure sessions – including sessions on third parties’ Web sites – and collect information transmitted in those sessions, such as the contents of shopping carts, online bank statements, drug prescription records, video rental records, library borrowing histories, and the sender, recipient, subject, and size for web-based e-mails. The software would also track some computer activities that were not related to the Internet. The proposed settlement calls for Sears to stop collecting data from the consumers who downloaded the software and to destroy all data it had previously collected.”

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Tags: FTC, Linkedin, Sears, tracking software