Misconfigured AI bot databases leak millions of Sears Home Services customer records

Cybernews reports that major U.S. appliance repair provider Sears Home Services had nearly 3.7 million customer service records from 2024 to 2026 inadvertently exposed by unsecured AI customer support bot databases.

Aside from featuring more than 2.1 million text files with scheduling conversations and over 200,000 spreadsheet logs and related audio files, the leaked data trove which referenced the Samantha customer-facing chatbot and KAIros scheduling and operational support platforms also contained nearly 1.4 million audio recordings of client calls and over 54,000 complete chat logs, according to an analysis by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler published on ExpressVPN.

Included in the exposed documents were customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, chat histories, and physical addresses, as well as product, service, delivery, and repair details. While access to the databases has since been restricted by Sears owner Transformco, individuals who may have been impacted were urged to be vigilant of potential data misuse. Such a data leak comes five years after Transformco reported the compromise of current and former employees' data in a cyberattack.