FTC report out - mentions case that tracked user library records

The long awaited FTC privacy report is out. It mentions a complaint against the retailer Sears, in which the Commission claimed that Sears paid $10 to consumers who visited its websites and agreed to download “research” software that the company said would confidentially track their “online browsing.”  See In re Sears Holdings Mgmt. Corp., No. C-4264 (Aug. 31, 2009), http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0823099/090604searsdo.pdf (consent order). The complaint charged that the software in fact collected vast amounts of information, such as the contents of consumers’ shopping carts, online bank statements, drug prescription records, video rental records, and library borrowing histories. Only in the middle of a lengthy user license agreement, available to consumers at the end of a multi-step registration process, did Sears disclose the full extent of the information the software tracked. The Commission issued a consent order against Sears requiring the company to stop collecting data from the consumers who downloaded the software and to destroy all data it had previously collected.