The Spanish Soccer League, La Liga, licenses the right to display its games. It’s very aggressive about enforcing that licensing especially in venues like bars where fans naturally gather to watch the games. The situation is much different here in the U.S., of course, but even the misanthropes at Irreal can understand the league’s desire to operate as efficiently as possible in the local environment.
What Irreal doesn’t understand is how the league thought it was okay to spy on their fans with a smartphone app that was supposed to provide team schedules, statistics, and news. When the app determined, through GPS, that the user was in a bar, it turned on the microphone to see if a game was being shown. If so, it checked that the establishment had the requisite license.
Spain’s data protection agency has fined La Liga €250,000. The league insists: Well gee, our terms of service explain what we’re doing and even give the user the opportunity to opt out. As long as that user was one of the two or three people who actually read those long and dense terms of service.
We Irreal minions are, of course, completely ignorant of the league’s financial situation but if it’s anything like, say, the American Football League’s, that €250,000 fine is a drop in the bucket and was most likely written off as a cost of doing business. You know what wouldn’t be written off as a cost of doing business? A few months in jail for some league executives. Or at least a fine large enough to get the league’s attention. Until that happens, the data gatherers will continue to run amok and abuse their users.
For its part, the league plans to continue using its fans to fight piracy and will appeal the fine. See what I mean by out of control?