Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics • Hacker News Board

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#11

Post by _jxdz » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 1:51 PM UTC

haubey wrote: post #7

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm especially not a British lawyer, but I do have an Athletic subscription. The article discusses a lawsuit on behalf of Primer League and mostly lower league soccer players in England around their "personal data." > More than 400 current and former players have signed up to pursue gaming, betting and data-processing companies who utilise their personal statistics without consent or compensatio…

The legal argument appears to be:

1. There have been breaches of data protection law (GDPR as implemented in the Data Protection Act 2018), e.g. players did not consent to data transfer, the data isn't accurate, etc. and it's done on a commercial basis.

2. These breaches were injurious to the economic prospects of the affected players and therefore damages should be awarded.

I would imagine that the cause of action will be the tort of negligence against whoever sold the data on, and/or the gaming, betting, and data-processing companies. This is because they arguably had a duty of care to the players, the duty was breached, and the players suffered some harm -- based solely on the facts in this article.

Regarding personal compilation of statistics, that's fine - there's an exemption for activities of a purely personal nature in the GDPR - which is why you wouldn't get caught, but commercial exploitation of the data falls outside of that.

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#12

Post by Cymruboogaloo » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 1:53 PM UTC

I think it's the resale factor that alot of people seem to be missing, The data used would appear in scouting databases that are traded and sold, this could have a rather large impact on your career trajectory behind the scenes. Thats before you factor in the videogame market. While i understand this is just about getting more money I would find it weird if the number of points I achieved every sprint was tracked and shared but hey I guess thats just the industry.

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#13

Post by helsinkiandrew » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:00 PM UTC

In the computer weekly article linked in another comment it states the players are not claiming they own the data - but that they have data rights and are seeking to address the issue of people using that data without consent.

That sounds a little less clear cut, I'm not a legal expert but I guess a case might be able to be made about privacy and GDPR conformance. But probably not that they can be paid for the data.

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#14

Post by pulse7 » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

Apple also has a nice statistics of >>all used apps on Macs<< since 2017 - every app start is reported back to apple. One could see from such stat what is being used more, what is being used less and then make business decisions... Maybe somebody will sue in the future...

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#15

Post by mola » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

_jxdz wrote: post #11

haubey wrote: post #7

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm especially not a British lawyer, but I do have an Athletic subscription. The article discusses a lawsuit on behalf of Primer League and mostly lower league soccer players in England around their "personal data." > More than 400 current and former players have signed up to pursue gaming, betting and data-processing companies who utilise their personal statistics without consent or compensatio…

The legal argument appears to be: 1. There have been breaches of data protection law (GDPR as implemented in the Data Protection Act 2018), e.g. players did not consent to data transfer, the data isn't accurate, etc. and it's done on a commercial basis. 2. These breaches were injurious to the economic prospects of the affected players and therefore damages should be awarded. I would imagine that the cause of action w…

It seems there's a huge difference if your data is collected when you engage in a private activity (i.e. was not intended for public consumption)and participating in a public event where your behaviour is intended to be consumed by the public.

Does GDPR make this distinction?

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#16

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

_jxdz wrote: post #11

haubey wrote: post #7

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm especially not a British lawyer, but I do have an Athletic subscription. The article discusses a lawsuit on behalf of Primer League and mostly lower league soccer players in England around their "personal data." > More than 400 current and former players have signed up to pursue gaming, betting and data-processing companies who utilise their personal statistics without consent or compensatio…

The legal argument appears to be: 1. There have been breaches of data protection law (GDPR as implemented in the Data Protection Act 2018), e.g. players did not consent to data transfer, the data isn't accurate, etc. and it's done on a commercial basis. 2. These breaches were injurious to the economic prospects of the affected players and therefore damages should be awarded. I would imagine that the cause of action w…

The idea that everything remotely involving data is forbidden under GDPR is giving it a bad name. I'm reminded of every Comcast sin being labeled as a "net neutrality" issue.

Here, specifically, GDPR prescribes exemptions for journalism: https://gdpr.eu/article-85-right-to-freedom-of-expression-an...

There are probably other exemptions that would apply for innocuous activity freely done in public, with the explicit understanding that it would be filmed.

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#17

Post by Ekaros » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #13

In the computer weekly article linked in another comment it states the players are not claiming they own the data - but that they have data rights and are seeking to address the issue of people using that data without consent. That sounds a little less clear cut, I'm not a legal expert but I guess a case might be able to be made about privacy and GDPR conformance. But probably not that they can be paid for the data.

My understanding is that they should have some rights, in this case namely they could be to request their own data, to correct their own data and to ask their data to be removed(right to be forgotten)...

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#18

Post by garybake » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

bzb6 wrote: post #5

throwaway2245 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have access to the article but they'll surely be suing on GDPR grounds, for unpermissioned use of personal data, not the copyright (which, I agree, they probably won't hold). It's akin to an employer now tracking 24/7 whether you are sat at your home office desk (in my view: this shouldn't be allowed, with or without permission).

These are football players playing matches in public and the statistics are trivial I imagine, like how many passes they make and stuff like that, no? This seems like they just want free money and I hope they lose

Like in moneyball. It could have a bearing on players wages, sponsorship etc. I hope too hope they loose though.

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#19

Post by notahacker » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

_jxdz wrote: post #11

haubey wrote: post #7

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm especially not a British lawyer, but I do have an Athletic subscription. The article discusses a lawsuit on behalf of Primer League and mostly lower league soccer players in England around their "personal data." > More than 400 current and former players have signed up to pursue gaming, betting and data-processing companies who utilise their personal statistics without consent or compensatio…

The legal argument appears to be: 1. There have been breaches of data protection law (GDPR as implemented in the Data Protection Act 2018), e.g. players did not consent to data transfer, the data isn't accurate, etc. and it's done on a commercial basis. 2. These breaches were injurious to the economic prospects of the affected players and therefore damages should be awarded. I would imagine that the cause of action w…

I think the challenge will be persuading courts that actions that users are paid to undertake in public and contractually agreed to reassign relevant image rights to are [i] 'personal data' under the intended meaning of GDPR and that [ii] something they didn't have informed consent about the possibility third parties might have access to when signing those contracts. Proving actual instances of harm suffered from the dissemination of unfavourable statistics is also going to be tricky (even though there are undoubtedly players that have lost out). It's plausible the net effect of increased statistics on player salaries is positive; certainly they haven't gone down on average.

Since most player contracts are frequently renegotiated and most clubs use third party databases and generate revenue from betting companies (so if necessary they'd all end up with clauses permitting this data use), the long term effects of a favourable stretch of the definition of 'personal data' are more likely to have chilling implications for people collating activity/performance metrics or compiling biographies of other types of public figure anyway...

Re: Players to sue for hundreds of millions over use of their statistics

#20

Post by _jxdz » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

mola wrote: post #15

_jxdz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The legal argument appears to be: 1. There have been breaches of data protection law (GDPR as implemented in the Data Protection Act 2018), e.g. players did not consent to data transfer, the data isn't accurate, etc. and it's done on a commercial basis. 2. These breaches were injurious to the economic prospects of the affected players and therefore damages should be awarded. I would imagine that the cause of action w…

It seems there's a huge difference if your data is collected when you engage in a private activity (i.e. was not intended for public consumption)and participating in a public event where your behaviour is intended to be consumed by the public. Does GDPR make this distinction?

The GDPR primarily focuses on the intent of the person processing or collecting the data rather than whether the activity you engaged in was private or public, although it does take into account reasonable expectations around privacy as well. I suppose it focuses on that because it's more flexible to enforce.