Sears’ Christmas Spyware Surprise
Written by Evan SchumanJanuary 3rd, 2008
Did Sears conclude that the only accurate way to see what consumers were truly doing online was to track customers who didn't know they were being tracked? The $53 billion retailer isn't disputing that it did distribute spyware, but merely that consumers knew that they were agreeing to spyware.
But the chain is also learning that the online world—with its thousands of bloggers armed with screen captures—is fairly unforgiving when it comes to marketing excesses.
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6 Comments | Read Sears’ Christmas Spyware Surprise
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January 4th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Sears: Shame on you. One would think that we learned something from the TJX fiasco. What happened to a once great company? I remember getting excited at the chance to go to Sears with my Dad on Saturday mornings. We’d peruse the Tool isles, check out the new gadgets Hardware & Appliances and say Hi to the Sales Clerks we had known for years. Maybe buy a couple of tools and some jeans or sneakers and stop at McDonalds on the way home. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Sears store today. They never have to same person in Tools or Hardware, jeans are way overpriced unless they’re on sale and they never have my size in sneakers or shoes (11-1/2 Wide). It is an unacceptable buying experience. Sears Management got rid of all the old timers that really knew the department, replacing them with Teens that can’t make change. They used to have a register in each department, replaced them with “checkout kiosks”, went back to department checkout and now they have “centrally located” checkout…? I get the impression that Sears hired a bunch of MBA’s with sharp pencils and not a clue about what it takes to keep loyal Customers and little by little alienated them with all these weird changes…none of which appears to have saved them any money. Sears is a ship lost at sea and no navigation plan….
January 4th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Always one to investigate the latest in retail technology, when invited, I started to install and download Sears’ software. Of course I didn’t read the agreement in full either.
Fortunately, my malware protection program (Norton Internet Security, and no this is not an endorsement…just a fact) warned me that I was about to install software that would monitor my keystrokes. That was all I needed to know.
I was shocked and just shook my head. This is customer-centricity? My goodness.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:43 am
The story is very informative and will certainly make me pay closer attention to these types of online agreements and disclaimers. But the story doesnt mention whether the software is removable, and how the average, non-technical customer can remove it from their computer.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:23 am
This is a classic example of a breach in corporate ethics; it remind me of the episode a few years ago when UPS made available a new version of their shipping software — and if you downloaded it your homepage was changed to UPS and a slew of UPS related shortcuts added to your desktop. At least in that case, one could see how they were being victimized. In this case with Sears it seems every effort was made to conceal the truth.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
great article. it’s my sense that despite the growing acknowledgment that companies need to be more open and transparent in their communications, it either hasn’t yet really sunk in to large corporation mindsets, or that large corporations have a complex infrastructure that makes it difficult to make these necessary changes. I mean, who reads the fine print (except for Harvard professors?!)
January 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Sears should be taken to task for this breach of confidence. There has been enough written about spyware for them to realize that the vast majority of people who signed up with this program would never approve of spyware being placed on their computer. What’s even more difficult for me to understand is that they also must have known that someone would eventually figure this out and expose the whole sordid mess. Shame on them.