Report: Customer gambling data shared extensively with third parties
Operator’s role in developing single customer view called into question as concerns over data privacy mount
An investigation commissioned by Clean Up Gambling has shown the extent to which customers’ gambling data is shared with third parties.
The research, led by Cracked Labs, found gambling operators are working in conjunction with a large web of third parties with which personal data of consumers is being widely shared.
The investigation focused on one individual’s relationship with Sky Betting and Gaming (SBG), although the report was also based on several subject access requests (SARs) from the individual to other companies, and discovered that 37 separate visits to the operator’s site resulted in 2,154 data transmission to 83 external domains controlled by 44 different third-party companies.
These companies include the likes of Facebook and Google as well as surveillance tech firms such as Signal.
The report showed that some of the data received by these companies comes in real-time, including spending and customer value to SBG.
Cracked Labs found that SBG and third parties were not wholly transparent with what data would be collected and did not disclose all the data that was being processed.
Clean Up Gambling said: “That lack of transparency makes it difficult for individuals to know what is happening with information being held about them and damages the ability of individuals to exercise their rights.”
Cracked Labs did establish that the data being sent to third parties allowed companies to build detailed personal profiles on customers revealing their “intimate” gambling behaviours.
One of the companies, Signal, disclosed that it had a file containing 186 separate attributes for a single individual, with data points including their propensity to gambling, their favourite games and their susceptibility to marketing efforts.
On these profiles, Clean Up Gambling noted: “Real-time monitoring of addictive behaviours allows for this vulnerability to be identified and exploited. In turn, awareness of such behaviours can be used to influence those addictive behaviours, through personalised offers and rewards. The potential for exploitation is aggravated where such profiles are updated in real-time based on an individual’s particular predilections.”
Matt Zarb-Cousin, Clean Up Gambling director, said: “This use of data is far more intrusive than any proposed customer affordability checks, although the latter would be to protect consumers rather than to exploit them.
“Given so much data exists that could be used by operators to reduce harm, but is instead abused to advance commercial objectives, it is unfathomable that the Gambling Commission is allowing the Betting and Gaming Council, of which Sky Bet is a member and funder, to lead on creating and controlling the ‘single customer view’ as a means for enforcing affordability controls,” he added.
SBG refutes the claims made by the study and argued that Clean Up Gambling had failed to engage with the operator on the matter.
SBG said it does not, nor has it ever had, access to much of the customers’ financial information via Signal’s parent company TransUnion. SBG also noted it does not have full access to all data sources from other third parties and it does not share all customer data with other companies.
The firm added that it uses Signal to actively target sponsored social media ads away from vulnerable customers and that all suppressions are applied when it comes to display advertising to at-risk customers.