Sears tries the online community thing.

And fails. All they had to do was create a blog, (or message board forum), and monitor it for consumer complaints, props or suggestions. No sign-up beyond a basic registration. Easy, right? But after reading the 15 million paragraphs of their privacy policy, (copied below–I read it so you don’t have to people), it talks about how they really will won’t give your name out.

They just lost a participant because there’s no way I’m signing up for that nightmare.

I’m guessing more than one actually if this is how they plan to reach out to customers. Granted, most sites have a lengthy privacy policy, but how many major brands trying to build a community set up so many obstacles to it right from the start like this?

I knew the Sears grasp of the online world was problematic when I went looking for tech support for an appliance once. Ended up going to another appliance maker’s forum to get tips though, all because Sears hasn’t left 1940 yet and created their own forums. And now this latest thing when you land at Sears.com. Me thinks they’re overthinking this.

Put up a forum and message board deal and be done with it. Seed it with any questions you want, Tips section, etc. All of that. Don’t make me jump through hoops and waste my time, then take my personal info including credit card numbers and tell me that maybe you’ll be able to keep the third-party vendors you share my info with from passing it on.

On top of that, the name of the community is the name of their holding company. Talk about being out of touch with consumers.

The links in the bottom of that welcome screen would take you to the following sections below. (Click image to enlarge.)

About Sears Holdings Corporation:

SHC, or Sears Holdings Corporation, is the United States’ third largest broadline retailer. It is the parent company of Kmart and Sears Roebuck and Co., with $55 billion in annual revenues and approximately 3,800 full-line and specialty retail stores in the U.S. and Canada. SHC is a leading retailer of home appliances, tools, lawn and garden equipment, home electronics, and automotive repair and maintenance. Proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman, Diehard, Land’s End, Jaclyn Smith, and Joe Boxer. Martha Stewart Everyday products are offered exclusively in the U.S. by Kmart and in Canada by Sears. SHC is also the nation’s largest provider of home services with 13+ million service calls made each year.

About My SHC Community: Changing the Way Retail Works – One Experience at a Time!

Welcome to My SHC Community; a growing but personalized online community consisting of vibrant individuals interested in sharing their opinions about shopping. Through My SHC Community, SHC relies upon its membership to gain valuable insights into the browsing and buying behaviors, as well as the offers and experiences that are most important to you. It is a community that provides SHC employees, including senior leadership, a direct link to the insights and needs of shoppers across the industry.

Your Perspective is Invaluable

SHC wants to hear from you to learn about what is working in the retail industry and what is in need of desperate repair. So whether you are an avid shopper or perhaps have never made a trip to a Kmart, Sears, or any SHC affiliate, My SHC Community offers you the opportunity to tell your story. It is also an opportunity to get something in return. As part of the My SHC Community, you will have access to free planning and budgeting tools, special forums to express your views and ideas and receive exclusive offers and promotions that will save you money. In addition, for being a member of My SHC Community, you will also be eligible to win cash and merchandise prizes via sweepstakes that occur regularly throughout the year.

Your voice counts! Always on your terms, members will be asked to share their thoughts and reactions about their shopping experiences. Online forums will enable members to communicate with one another and SHC executives, both to receive useful tips and to share new ideas across a wide variety of topics. The community will offer valuable information to its members on products, services and much more! Whether it be designing a new virtual store, improving our service and selection, or offering you customized products relevant to your lifestyle and needs, SHC wants to partner directly with you.

Member Benefits:

• Membership is FREE, community functions are fun and always voluntary
• Create the future of in-store, on-line, and service experiences that are right for you and your changing needs.
• Be part of an idea lab, trying out products and maybe even creating new ones of your own!
• Receive exclusive offers for new products and special promotions
• Enjoy special content: how-to guides, buying tips, and user forums tailored to a wide variety of interests
• Gain access to free planning and household budgeting tools that enable you to save even if you don’t shop with us
• And don’t forget, you’ll be entered to win cash and fabulous merchandise prizes through sweepstakes drawings held many times throughout the year!

To learn more about Kmart or Sears, the most current information can be found at KmartCorp.com and AboutSears.com respectively.

Click here to view our Privacy Policy & ULA


Wanna know more about their privacy policy? Go get coffee, come back and read how your private info will be given out regardless of your wishes:

We value the trust you place in Sears Holdings ("Sears") and the companies which Sears owns and operates ("affiliates"). We want to ensure that you understand what information we gather about you, how we use it, and the safeguards we have in place in order to protect it. If you have additional questions or would like further information on this topic, please feel free to write to our Webmaster at webmaster@customerservice.sears.com or help@customerservice.kmart.com. Myshccommunity.com may update this policy from time to time. Please check our policy periodically for changes. Please note that sears.com, kmart.com and landsend.com will continue to maintain their own privacy policies. You may view them by clicking here: sears.com privacy policy, kmart.com privacy policy, and landsend.com privacy policy.

PRIVACY POLICY & USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Before joining our program, enjoying the benefits of this program, and downloading our application, you must review and agree to the terms and conditions below and provide and obtain consent to this agreement from anyone who will be using the computers on which you install this application. By installing our application, you agree to be bound by this privacy policy & user license agreement, including the storage of the market research information provided by you on our computer systems in the United States.

Requirements for participation: In order to participate in this program, you must:

* Be at least 18 years of age and capable of entering into a binding agreement;
* Be the parent or legal guardian of anyone under 18 having access to such computer;
* Own or control the computers that you allow to be configured to use this system; and
* Not be employed or related to an individual employed by an unaffiliated market research company.


Please note: many companies restrict the download of software onto work computers. Before you download this software onto a work computer, please check your company’s software download policy.

What information is collected?

Basic Demographic Information: When you sign up for this program, we may obtain your contact information and some basic demographic information about you using a questionnaire or the application that you install onto your computer and allow to track your Internet usage.

Survey response information: Once you agree to participate in this program, we may notify you of survey opportunities through e-mail, pop-ups, toast windows, U.S. mail, and other means. If you elect to participate in a survey, we require that you provide complete and accurate information about yourself and your household.

Computer hardware, software, and other configuration information: Our application may collect certain basic hardware, software, computer configuration and application usage information about the computer on which you install our application, including such data as the speed of the computer processor, its memory capacities and Internet connection speed. In addition, our application may report on devices connected to your computer, such as the type of printer or router you may be using.

Internet usage information: Once you install our application, it monitors all of the Internet behavior that occurs on the computer on which you install the application, including both your normal web browsing and the activity that you undertake during secure sessions, such as filling a shopping basket, completing an application form or checking your online accounts, which may include personal financial or health information. We may use the information that we monitor, such as name and address, for the purpose of better understanding your household demographics; however we make commercially viable efforts to automatically filter confidential personally identifiable information such as UserID, password, credit card numbers, and account numbers. Inadvertently, we may collect such information about our panelists; and when this happens, we make commercially viable efforts to purge our database of such information.

The software application also tracks the pace and style with which you enter information online (for example, whether you click on links, type in webpage names, or use shortcut keys), the usage of cookies, and statistics about your use of online applications (for example, it may observe that during a given period of use of a computer, the computer downloaded X number of bytes of data using a particular Internet enabled gaming application).

Please note: Our application does not examine the text of your instant messages or e-mail messages. We may, however, review select e-mail header information from web-based e-mails as a way to verify your contact information and your online usage information.

How is the information collected?

The software application monitors your Internet usage by transmitting to our servers information about the web pages that you visit and the actions that you take while online. In addition, we may ask for information about you using surveys, for which participation is completely voluntary. We may also combine the information that you provide us with additional information (such as select credit bureau information) or with information obtained from other sources (such as consumer preference reporting companies or credit reporting agencies) using confidential matching procedures. In these cases, we will: (i) provide the third party data match processor only the personal information necessary to perform a match and, infrequently, to assist us performing statistical analyses; (ii) establish procedures and legal obligations that prohibit use of the information received for any other purpose or disclosure of this information to anyone else; and (iii) require destruction of the received information after completion of the match. The information that we obtain from other sources will not include confidential personally identifiable information such as credit card numbers and account numbers. Your information is stored in the United States where our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of other countries may differ from those of the United States. Your information may be processed outside of the United States, provided that the data protection laws of such processing location affords similar if not more protections than those afforded in the United States for the processed data.

How is the collected information used?

This data is utilized in aggregate to help us look for trends so that we can improve our website and your sears.com experience. We do not rent or sell customer information to outside marketers. We may share your information (as described above) with members of the Sears family of businesses to provide you with products or services that you have requested or to provide you with promotional offers that we believe will be of interest to you. The Sears family of businesses includes all Sears affiliates as well as other selected businesses with which Sears has a relationship and which have agreed to adhere to our strict standards for providing quality products and services, responding to your needs, and protecting Sears' customer information.

In certain circumstances, we may share your customer information with trusted service providers that need access to your information to provide operational or other support services. To ensure the confidentiality and security of your information, service providers must agree to safeguard your information in strict compliance with our policy. We also may provide information to regulatory authorities and law enforcement officials in accordance with applicable law or when we otherwise believe in good faith that the law requires it. In the event of a sale of all or part of one of our businesses, we may share customer information related to that business as part of the transaction.

How is the information secured?

Safeguards: We have implemented a variety of safeguards (including physical, digital, and legal protections) focused on ensuring that the information collected through this program is protected from unauthorized use, modification, or disclosure. For example, any secure information collected by our application is encrypted before it is sent to our servers.

If you would like to access, modify, and/or request deletion of the personally identifiable profile information submitted by you as part of this program, you may complete a support form on our website, or e-mail our support staff at the e-mail address provided below.

Are cookies used by your website or your application?

"Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by the browser on your hard drive. We may store some information on the visitor's computer in the form of a cookie or similar file. The cookies that are configured by us do not contain any personally identifying information, such as your name, or sensitive information, such as your credit card number. The cookies allow us to recognize you when you return to our site and to provide you with a customized experience that we feel will be of value to you. For example, these files allow us to tailor your sears.com experience to reflect your expressed interests and preferences.

What if I wish to stop participating in this program?

Resignation: You may resign at any time by contacting us at the support address listed below or by selecting the “contact us” link from the Members section on the web page.

Removing our Application: You may remove our application using the Windows Add/Remove Programs function (known as “Programs and Features” in Vista). Alternatively, you may e-mail our support staff at the e-mail address provided below and request removal instructions. Please be sure to follow this same removal procedure on all of the computers from which you wish to remove this application. Removing the application will stop tracking of your online browsing and purchasing behavior, but unless you resign from the panel in accordance with the procedure stated above, you still may be contacted for administrative purposes or for special participant opportunities. After you remove our application from a computer, all settings we have made to your computer will be deactivated; however, some inactive elements may remain on your machine such as registry entries or DLL files, which is not at all unusual for many types of online services and software.

Use of Third Party Programs to Remove our Software: Please note that use of third party programs to remove this application may cause instability in your system and to your Internet connection. We reserve the right to repair any of its settings that are partially removed, to minimize potential instability. Should you wish to resign, we ask that you use the instructions provided above.

Stop Participating in Surveys: You may contact us at the support address listed below to alter how you receive, or to completely stop receiving, surveys, or you can edit your survey preferences at the Members section on the web page.

Please note: We may continue to use information collected prior to resignation, but all such information remains fully subject to, and governed by, the agreement effective at the time of your resignation.

What is the policy regarding children?

All persons installing this application must be at least 18 years old and must be the parent or legal guardian of any minor that may use a computer with this application installed. However, all household Internet behavior may be used by us in developing the statistical projections. This program complies with all applicable U.S. data gathering rules, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

How will I be notified of changes to this Agreement?

If we change our practices in how we handle personally identifiable information, or if we materially change other aspects of our program, including but not limited to any changes to the scope or nature of incentives provided, we will post these changes on our website, and the changes will be effective immediately upon such posting. If you do not agree with any of the changes, you may remove our application as described above.

What are my obligations as a participant?

As a participant, you agree to:

* Allow this program to collect and use information obtained from you and related to you and your household's Internet use as described in this agreement;
* Make reasonable efforts to ensure that any other person who uses such computers is aware of and agree to the terms of this agreement;
* Accept automatic changes to your system settings that are made solely to ensure compatibility between your computer system and this program, and periodic software upgrades;
* Receive administrative e-mails, including e-mails sent to: (i) inform you about upgrades, or issues related to basic program/application functions or disruptions; (ii) provide notification about awards and special participant opportunities; (iii) request updated demographic information or information regarding usage of the application; and
* Regularly visit and review the agreement posted on this website, so that you are aware of any changes made to this agreement.


As a participant, you agree not to:

* Use this program in any way that: (i) harms or harasses others; (ii) violates any federal, state or local laws or ordinances; (iii) violates or infringes on the rights of any third parties including, but not limited to, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, rights of privacy or publicity or other proprietary right; or (iv) interferes with or disrupts this program; and
* Attempt to defeat or circumvent our application, it being your responsibility to remove this application as instructed in this agreement or expressly by an authorized service representative.


What is our commitment to participants?

We commit to making commercially reasonable efforts to do the following:

* Only use information obtained from or about you as described in this agreement; and
* Provide customer support when you experience problems with this program, on the condition that you provide requested information about the problems experienced and the conditions of your computer environment, and agree to take reasonable efforts to follow the instructions supplied by our support staff.


What are the other legal terms and conditions of participating in this program?

Governing Law: You agree that any dispute or claim arising out of this program or agreement shall be settled by binding arbitration in Cook County, Illinois under the American Arbitration Association Rules. The proceedings shall be conducted and all evidence shall be offered in the English language. Regardless of any law to the contrary, any claim against us must be filed within one year of the time such claim arose, otherwise such claim will be barred forever. We agree that regardless of any law to the contrary, that the arbitrator shall have no authority to award, punitive or exemplary damages against any party to this agreement.

Notwithstanding the above, we may apply to any court of competent jurisdiction for a temporary restraining order or other interim relief, as necessary without breach of this agreement and without abridgment of the powers of the arbitrator.

THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, WITHOUT REGARD TO CONFLICTS OF LAWS PROVISIONS AND SUCH LAW SHALL BE APPLIED BY THE ARBITRATOR TO THE MERITS OF ANY DISPUTE OR CLAIM. FOR ANY NON-ARBITRAL ACTION OR PROCEEDING ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS PROGRAM OR THIS AGREEMENT, SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION SHALL RESIDE WITH THE APPROPRIATE STATE COURT LOCATED IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS OR FEDERAL COURT LOCATED IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

While this program is available on the Internet to international users, the program is and remains a U.S. offering and all use of the information collected is and shall remain subject to U.S. law and practice. International users must take this into account and should consult their local laws and independently determine whether participation is desired given these facts.

Third Party Rights: This agreement shall not create any rights or remedies in any parties other than the parties to the agreement and no person shall assert any rights as a third party beneficiary under this agreement.

Assignment: You may not assign this agreement or any rights or obligations under this agreement without our prior written approval.

Waiver: The failure of us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Severability: If any provision of this agreement is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable. In any event, the remaining provisions shall be enforced.

Indemnity: You agree to defend, indemnify and hold our company and our affiliates, officers, directors, and employees harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, liabilities and costs including without limitation, reasonable attorney’s fees, arising out of or relating to your breach of this Agreement or misuse of this program.

Disclaimers of Warranty: YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS PROGRAM AND ALL SOFTWARE, CHANGES TO YOUR COMPUTER, FUNCTIONS, MATERIALS AND INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE AS PART OF THIS PROGRAM ARE PROVIDED ‘AS IS.' OUR COMPANY, ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL OUR COMPANY, ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES RESULTING IN ANY WAY FROM THIS PROGRAM. THE TERMS OF THIS SECTION WILL SURVIVE ANY TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT. IN JURISDICTIONS WHICH RESTRICT LIMITATION OF LIABILITY OR DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY PROVISIONS, OUR COMPANY’S LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. THIS LIMITATION WILL APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE FAILURE OF THE ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY.

Third Party Products and Services: We neither endorse nor accept responsibility for any third party materials accessed through the Internet.

ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between sponsor and you with respect to the subject matter contained in the Agreement.

This Agreement is effective as of April 16, 2007.

Whom can I contact if I have additional questions?

The program sponsor is Sears Holdings Management Corporation. If you have any questions about the above Privacy Statement & User License Agreement, our practices or your interactions with this site and this program, you may contact the program sponsor at:

3333 Beverly Road, Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

For any support issues, please contact: webmaster@customerservice.sears.com or help@customerservice.kmart.com.

Tags: SHC Community, sears