Sears Sued over Alleged Data Sharing
Sears, Roebuck & Co. has been sued by two consumers who allege that the firm sold their personal data to Memberworks, Inc. in violation of its own privacy policy.
Sears cardholders Arin Bovay and Debra Wathen filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court on Monday, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The plaintiffs allege that Sears violated a company policy of not selling customer information to firms outside the Sears family of businesses.
However, Sears spokesperson Peggy Palter argued that MemberWorks is part of the “Sears family of businesses” because it is a licensee.
According to Palter, Memberworks marketed health and dental membership programs for Sears. Sears dropped the programs last year, but Memberworks is “still serving customers who are currently in those programs,” she said.
Sears pulled back because the programs “weren’t related to our core retail business,” Palter added.
She added that Sears had not yet seen the complaint.
In April, Sears and Memberworks settled a lawsuit filed by California and two counties in the states over inadequate disclosure of billing practices in the marketing of membership programs.
Memberworks agreed to pay costs, and penalties of $1.5 million. Sears was to pay costs, and civil penalties of $500,000.
