Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

The Sears statement went on to note the “research project” ended more than a year ago and stressed Sears has not been involved in anything similar since then and has no plans to do so in the future. “No customer data was ever compromised or disclosed, and all personal information was destroyed at the end of the project,” added Sears. “Any software that was downloaded by panelists was also removed at the conclusion of the research period with each participant. No tracking software is being deployed on any of Sears Holdings’ sites or communities.”

The original Sears research was done in partnership with Comscore and Aiello stressed that Sears played a minor role. “Comscore was the research company that conducted the research on our behalf as they do for dozens of other major companies. We didn’t create any software,” he said. “All data was deleted after the study was completed, just as with surveys (with) Neisen or other survey vendors.”

Aiello also said that, even though Sears and Comscore collected all of that data, the information that was delivered to Sears was devoid of any sensitive, personal information. “We never received or looked at any personal information, just aggregate reports. All data was anonymous in any case. No human gets to see any of the personal information and PII was scrubbed automatically. But we probably should stay away from commenting on process and what Comscore does.”

Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ben Edelman, an Internet security advocate, was one of the first to discover and write about what Sears was doing. “Sears’ tracking was deplorable,” Edelman said after the FTC settlement was announced. “The FTC has confirmed that Sears’ software tracked not just ordinary Web browsing and searching, but medical records, financial records, and even library book usage. No wonder Sears couldn’t tell users, simply and directly, what the software actually did. What users would accept such detailed and onerous tracking? But, to Sears’ credit, they substantially stopped this practice once the public (myself included) began to express concern.”

Invitations to join the “My SHC Community” appeared to some people as they visited Sears.com and Kmart.com. The invitations called upon users to “participate in exciting, engaging, and on-going interactions – always on your terms and always by your choice” and Sears paid participants $10.

The FTC said Sears disclosed (in a very long user license agreement) the full extent of its information gathering plans that appeared “at the end of a multi-step registration process.” The commission said the disclosure failed to plainly and adequately warn participants about the depth of the data gathering and, therefore, was deceptive and in violation of FTC regulations.