sloth unleashed

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Spyware installed on computers leased from furniture renter Aaron’s Inc. secretly sent 185,000 emails containing sensitive information — including pictures of nude children and people having sex — back to the company’s corporate computers, according to court documents filed Wednesday in a class-action lawsuit.

According to the filings, some of the spyware emails contained pictures secretly taken by the rental computers’ webcams or other sensitive information including Social Security numbers, social media and email passwords, and customer keystrokes, the Federal Trade Commission determined last year.

The attorneys also claimed Atlanta-based Aaron’s hasn’t properly notified at least 800 customers allegedly targeted by spyware made by DesignerWare, a company located in North East, Pa.

“Because Aaron’s has been so uncooperative in agreeing to give proper notice and assistance to its customers, we’ve had to ask the court to intervene and order them to do it, so that people can protect their most private kinds of rights and property,” said Maury Herman, a New Orleans attorney who was one of several to file the documents.