January 7th, 2008
Lawyers circle Sears over privacy
Sears may have taken down a feature that allowed you to see anyone’s purchase history, but not fast enough to keep the lawyers at bay.
On Friday, KamberEdelson filed a class action complaint alleging that Sears ManageMyHome.com site violates the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act. The suit, first reported by the Washington Post, is likely to be the first of many. KamberEdelson filed the suit on behalf of New Jersey resident Christine Desantis and a “class of similarly situated individuals.”
The suit comes after spyware researcher Ben Edelman highlighted Sears’ shenanigans with the ComScore software and inability to honor privacy. Edelman then followed up with Sears’ purchase history feature that allowed anyone to view your buying habits. Unfortunately, Sears took down the feature before I could download my entire neighborhood’s history.
Let’s add it up. Sears fumbles over privacy and ComScore’s Web tracking software plus the ability to see your neighbor’s purchase history equals lawsuits in every state.
Brian Krebs at the Post notes that KamberEdelson is the same law firm that sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment over spyware loaded on music CDs.
The complaint, which will be copied by lawyers everywhere, is available as a PDF here.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
