Consumerist
Want to see all the major appliances and repair services that your friends and neighbors... (and anyone else who you can look up in the phone book) have ever purchased at Sears?
Want to know what your mom might have purchased for your birthday? Want to know which houses in your neighborhood have really nice expensive TVs?
Sears provides a website, www.ManageMyHome.com where anyone can look up anyone elses' entire purchase history at Sears—using only their name and address. This is especially convenient because these strange men keep dropping off huge lists of names and addresses on our door every year (we think they're called "phone books") and we never really knew what to do with them.
Apparently, all you need to do is create an account at www.managemyhome.com, click "Find Sears Products" and enter a name, address and phone number.
From the CA Security Advisor Research Blog:
With their consent we have tested this technique with other individuals and have received reliable results every time. If they'd had major dealings with Sears, that information is now available to the public, from a television bought in 1978 to a stove which was purchased elsewhere but had been repaired by a Sears technician.Says Kurt, the reader who sent this tip in: "I was able to look up my entire family's purchases. This is a scary one."
Is Sears evil or what?
UPDATE: Rumor has it that all you really need is someone's name and phone number.
Comments
Wow. Very, very, very bad idea.
Is there a way to opt-out? Please tell me there's a way to opt-out.
Indeed they are evil. First that spyware, now this. What the hell are they doing?
Good thing they don't have a Craftsman line of adult items. How embarrassing.
Tho, if they did, would they carry lifetime replacement?
Where do I sign up for the class action?
I attempted to reproduce this, and am unable to. I followed the linked blog's instructions to no avail. Anyone else have any luck?
I don't think this is a thing of being evil. Sounds like an oversight to me. It was a well intentioned device that they simply did not think through. I'd be surprised to see it up in a month. (If it is up in a month I retract my not evil comment )
Wow. What a bad, bad idea. Beacon levels of badness, maybe more.
i would just not give them my address or name. then what? i've bought things from their before, and never ended up in their list. i think its because i paid cash and don't give any personal information to a cashier.
I am a bit confused. Can you view other people's purchases even if they haven't signed up? I wonder because, reading the privacy policy, you agree to share your personal information. Check it out.
@quarterly: There's an option to opt-out. Don't shop at Sears. Or at least falsify the info you give them.
clearly the programmers didn't think this through. but really, you'd need a strange mind and lots of free time to start researching people's name, address, phone number, etc., all required fields -- to get to know what the neighbor paid for the new snow blower.
one MORE reason to never shop at sears.
@homerjay: beat me to it!
As a career burglar, this looks very useful to me. For instance: I onw know that Mr. Benjamin Popken of [ADDRESS REDACTED -editors] has purchased all of the latest in home appliances. I certainly intend to make effective use of this information. Thanks, Sears!
@Bay State Darren: I had the same thought. Why take chances selected a house that may not contain anything of value?
This is one of the worst ideas ever.
@Hossofcourse: "you'd need a strange mind and lots of free time to start researching people's name, address, phone number, etc., all required fields"
And that's why this site unsettles people.
yeah for expensive home theatre stuff that is a potential burglar.
But unless you're having it delivered - why would anyone (at least us) volunteer their home address?
I signed up just to see what's in there, and the site is painfully slow. I wonder if it's being DoS'd or if it's an intentional part of the Sears Customer Service Experience.
so since sears owns k-mart, i wonder if they'll be next, or if their information is already on there.
@jamesdenver:
I don't think you have to volunteer your address, if you pay by debit or credit card they've got your address.
being able to process returns w/ a name and phone number - good idea
being able to look at strangers' shopping habbits w/ a name and phone number - bad idea.
@snoop-blog: I worked at sears for a while, and it was my understanding that Kmart had been switched over to Sear's POS system (for the most part) so it would be fair to say that there's a fair chance that this applies to Kmart as well.
@Bay State Darren:
I'm a professional burglar as well, and I use the database to look up potential targets. But I try to avoid those households with a lot of Sears products. I prefer to go after higher-end type household goods.
Will I see you at the next National Convention of Theft Professionals?
Apparently my parents have purchased many many things at Sears.
This is very bad.
Anyone who wants to look up my info, break into my house, and take my Kenmore dishwasher can have it.
The original article brings up an excellent point, that knowing such details about a particular model or brand of appliance inside a home would automatically lower an owners' guard and the potential for a social engineering scam is great.
"surely if they know what oven I have, this *must* be Sears on the phone asking for my credit card!"
This is horrible. Is it CEO eblast time?
i recently bought a garage door opener at sears (it was on sale). i was asked for my name, address, and phone number for the "warranty purposes." i told the cashier that the receipt was good enough to prove i bought it there. she said "no it isn't."
so, calmly, i gave her:
herman munster
1313 mockingbird ln
mockingbird heights, in 66600
@pepe the king prawn: let me guess, she was too young to know anything about the munsters.
@Hossofcourse: Don't blame the programmers - quite frequently they are "just following the rules", you'd be surprised how many times management shrugs their shoulders at any problems a lowly programmer bring up, only to blame them when something like this gets out.
(don't mind me while i sit here patting my 4 years of email archives for that very reason...)
So, who's found the purchases of the rich and famous? 1600 Pennsylvania Ave turns up zip.
This will be fun once it hits TV News.
see... this is what happens when a good idea goes bad. I love... LOVE. that I can go into sears to return something, and if I've lost my receipt (often) I can five them my name, addy, and phone number, and BAM - they've got it all on file.
This right here is just stupid. It's asking for trouble, and I have a very hard time believing this actually slipped through the cracks and into the wild.
Wow. I just got the word 'sex' for the word verification on the search. They're really going all out for this one, aren't they!
@savvy999: Bingo. These types only need the tiniest crack to get in the door.
@misteral: Damn right. What's even scarier is when stuff like this has been through the goddamn legal department and it *still* takes a programmer working on final implementation to see a problem.
Looking at the site now, it looks like they've taken that feature off the site - it's certainly not appearing to me as described in the writeup at CA.
I can't find the feature. Did they pull it allready?
@caederus: looks like it - I was looking up my friends and relatives when the site logged me out - when I logged back in it was gone
service is now unavailable. viva la revolution!
ok, never shopping at sears ever.
I am trying it and I do not see that option. We probably got it shut down ALREADY!
I saw this posted on arstechnica yesterday morning by the same person and nothing was done. Today, one little blurb from The Consumerist and its removed withing minutes. Impressive! Consumerist, FTW.
It ate my post.
How do I find the search page for Manage My Home online manuals?
I am trying to find a manual for a lawn tractor but cannot seem to find "find products" in the home section of Manage My Home. How do I get to the search page?
Expert Answer
I am sorry if you had trouble, some Internet issues were recently resolved that may have caused your problems. The direct link to the search page is:
[www.managemyhome.com]
It looks like they are just letting you search for your manuals now.
@pepe the king prawn:
so, calmly, i gave her:
herman munster
1313 mockingbird ln
mockingbird heights, in 66600
Did she go for it? Anyone under the age of 30 might not have ever seen the show...
@snoop-blog: You're never too young to know about the Munsters or the Addams Family. The value of eccentricity should be taught early.
WOW..... .... WOW... simply crazy... good think sears doesnt really sell many controversial items or more people would be thinking of filing lawsuits.
@ivealwaysgotmail10: ha, also it's just for appliances and such.
I did sweat a little when I read the article title that said "everything"
I go to sears essentials for sundries--nothing scandalous, but still I was worried about seeing a nice list of personal items and such
when I checked the site was kind of finicky and I had to put in an old area code to get it to work for my parent's home, but nobody in my family had any items listed older than 12 years
Thank god Sears doesn't have a pharmacy section.
Just tried creating an account so I can look at other folks and it stalled. I couldn't get one created.
I always give them the name of my imaginary childhood friend, the address of the central police station and the phone number for the theft department.
This would have actually been sort of useful. I might have found out what model of Sears programmable thermostat is in my rental home.