A software application from the holding company for Sears and K-Mart have the folks at StopBadware.org requesting changes to it.
Much of the kerfuffle over the Sears Holding Corporation’s ‘My SHC Community’ application got rolling with spyware researcher Ben Edelman. He commented on the installation of ComScore tracking software with My SHC, suggesting the tracking to take place is not clearly disclosed to novice computer users.
He followed that up with an even more astonishing disclosure that Sears “Manage My Home” reveals customer purchases, to anyone in an easy fashion. The disclosures violate Sears own privacy policy.
Privacy problems continued to mount when StopBadware.org joined the discussion. StopBadware cited My SHC as “badware because of inadequate disclosure of extensive tracking and data collection and because the application does not identify itself while running.”
Fortunately, both Sears and ComScore have averred they will take steps to address the concerns raised by StopBadware. “I’m convinced that Sears Holdings Corporation’s team, along with comScore, is making strides to address the things that make this application badware in our book,” John Palfrey, co-director of StopBadware.org and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, said in a statement.
The statement Murdok received from StopBadware said SHC has halted further downloads of the My SHC application until they update the disclosure and privacy policy language, and make an icon available for the application in the Start Menu to identify itself.
