FTC Slaps Sears’ Hand for Cyberspying

WASHINGTON (CN) - Sears Roebuck agreed to settle FTC charges accusing it of snooping on customers' online habits, and misrepresenting the information it collected from its spy software.

Sears told customers that its software would track their "online browsing," but did not tell them it "would also monitor consumers' online secure sessions - including sessions on third parties' Web sites - and collect information transmitted in those sessions, such as the contents of shopping carts, online bank statements, drug prescription records, video rental records, library borrowing histories, and the sender, recipient, subject, and size for web-based e-mails," the FTC said in a statement.

Sears agreed to stop doing it and destroy the data it collected.

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