Scary news for corporations who are interested in building online communities to further engage consumers (Disclosure: I'm involved in creating online communities for corporations interested in further engaging consumers -- but nothing nefarious like this). A Harvard researcher has uncovered a piece of "marketing software" sourced from Sears and Kmart and discovered that it contains invasive (and illegal, according to Boingboing) spyware.
Remember awhile back when Sony embedded spyware into its CDs, crashing computers all over and further hurting its sagging in-store (as opposed to iTunes) sales? I personally took it as an affront because of what it did to Neil Diamond. Let me digress for a moment...
Neil was working with master producer Rick Rubin on a 'comeback album', 12 Songs. Rick had just come off of his work with Johnny Cash and other aging legends, so I was look
ing forward to their efforts. Neil, as per Rick's direction, was to play a good deal of the instruments on the record, which he hadn't done in 30 years or so (totally a guesstimate -- might bother looking it up later to update). Anyway, long story short, the album came out, the spyware was on it (along with a number of other releases), and Sony ended up having to get returns on a crapload of CDs. Sales of the Neil Diamond album spiked upon release, but after the spyware incident, took a nosedive. Pissed me off... Neil and I have similar roots.Anyway, Sears and Kmart (both owned by Sears, btw) didn't learn Sony's lesson.
Topline:
- Fall 2007, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to participate in an "online community" (I assume a social network made up of Sears and Kmart loyalists).
- In late December, a security researcher discovered that the "community" installed software from a market research firm, to track the web activities of the sites' visitors.
- It also tracked visits to bank sites, looked at email, and other invasive things.
- All this information was sent to the market research firm.
I harbor a strange romanticism for the lost American companies of my youth and prior, like Woolworth's, The Automat, and Gimbel's. Because of this, I used to feel sort of sorry for companies like Sears and Kmart, who've gotten crushed in recent years by Target and Wal-Mart and Best Buy (Disclosure: Best Buy is a client). Not anymore.
When will companies understand that full transparency/disclosure is needed when working with word of mouth campaigns, social networking and any other relationship-building initiatives? Evangelists are willing to, or even excited to work with their favorite retailers to improve their experience. When they're misled, consumers lose trust in a company, and move somewhere better. Lately, most other retailers have been better, online and otherwise. These guys just really really hurt the feelings of people who cared enough about them to stick around and shop, and join up what's essentially a fan club. They're not going to stick around any longer.
The Washington Post
via BoingBoing
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