Who knew Sears and Kmart were in the surveillance business?
For most of 2007, both retailers offered the following deal on their websites: Join our "online community" to help us learn more about our customers, and we'll pay you $10.
As it turns out, that let the company spy on everything its customers did on their computers. Sears(SHLD) watched as unsuspecting people shopped on websites, did their banking, ordered medicine and checked email.
The company told customers what it was doing -- but it was buried in the fine print.
It was outrageous enough that the FTC stepped in. The retailers' parent company settled charges in 2009, agreeing to destroy all the data it collected and promised to issue more prominent disclosures.
In a statement to CNN, the company asserted that customers were paid and "informed upfront."