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Footballers Give Performance Data Sharing a Red Card
Footballers and other sports people are challenging the personal data collected by third parties without their consent.Â
A growing number of football players are issuing “stop processing” orders to data processing and gambling firms over the use of their personal data, citing ethical dilemmas on how their health, performance, and injury data is being used.
Footballers are noting that this data can have implications for their careers and their overall performance.
Under the UK’s current data protection regime, individuals have the right to object to their personal data being processed.
The Global Sports Data and Technology Group (GSDT) is submitting the complaints on behalf of players, and is led by former Cardiff City and Leyton Orient manager Russel Slade and technologist Jason Dunlop.
The requests are part of a larger movement, called the Project Red Card initiative, which aims to give sportspeople more agency in the collection and use of their performance data, not just by their leagues but by gambling and betting companies.
GSDT has not disclosed which companies the requests have been sent to, though the group claims it includes some of the biggest gambling and betting agencies in the world.
The movement clarifies that players take little issue with data being collected and used internally by their teams to track and improve performance. However, this data is often distributed on mass to third parties for the purpose of betting and gambling, which players have little control over.
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A lawsuit from GSDT was first launched back in 2020, representing hundreds of footballers against betting agencies and data processing firms who use their personal data without compensation, let alone consent.
A range of ethical concerns are brought up by the case and the campaign, including the accuracy of data, which can impact a player’s career, as well as conflicting feelings about having data used in gambling and betting which can have harmful financial consequences on people.
