In our modern digital world, online privacy has become a super-hot topic and a top issue of interest for everyone using web-based services. Since millions of people around the globe are now placing bets on almost everything, concerns about privacy/surveillance have emerged among those indulging in these gambling pastimes. That especially holds for those engaged in arbitrage betting or exploiting odds differences between bookmakers. We have an entire guide dedicated to arbitrage wagering or betting on all possible results using different sportsbooks, which is something that ensures a win on account of the price discrepancies different bookies list.
In 2016, internet betting platforms made headlines in the UK due to brands getting caught using covert tracking software. The incident, known as the IESnare scandal, will get discussed more in-depth below, and it will be one of the main points we will cover here as we explain how online bookies are tracking your activity, unraveling bookmakers’ surveillance practices.
How Sportsbooks Track What You’re Doing
They accomplish this via a wide range of techniques. For the most part, these have been designed to spot arbitrage bettors and prevent fraud. One of the most essential tools in a bookmaker’s arsenal regarding tracking is what gets referred to as device fingerprinting. What is that? Well, when you visit a betting site, it collects various info or data points such as your IP address, browser type, OS, screen resolution, installed plugins, and mouse movements/typing patterns. These get combined to create a unique fingerprint for your device. Even if you clear your cookies or use a different account, bookmakers can still recognize you based on it.
Of course, everyone has heard of cookies. Or, at least, most people who spend a considerable amount of time online know about these small files that websites store on your device, which track your activity. They get used to sending back info such as what pages you visit, how long you spend on them, whether you visit odds comparison sites, and so on. If it gets noted that you are continuously switching between odds pages or that you are placing bets in a robotic manner, then you may get suspected for arbitrage and flagged for further scrutiny. The same can happen if it gets learned that you are using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. That can become obvious if you have an IP associated with known VPN providers or your physical location gets changed too often.
Know that bookies also use algorithms to analyze betting patterns. Things these pieces of software are looking for include the use of bots, consistently placing bets on arbitrage opportunities, and betting large amounts on low-risk outcomes.
We should not fail to add that many online bookmakers also encourage users to download their apps, which may request excessive permissions, such as access to your location, files and photos, other apps on your device, and access to your clipboard. All that gets justified as necessary for the basic function of the app but can be used to gather additional data.
The IESnare Scandal
As promised, here we will give you the lowdown on the publicized IESnare scandal. For those unfamiliar with this incident, IESnare is a browser-based tool that monitors gamblers, developed by Iovation (now part of TransUnion). It operates in the background, collecting vast amounts of user data, with bookies justifying its use as a means to detect and prevent arbitrage betting.
Once installed, IESnare collects a wide range of data points, including the mentioned device fingerprinting. It tracks users’ online behavior, looking to see if it matches that of an arbitrage bettor. One of its most controversial features is its ability to share data across multiple bookmakers. Hence, if a person has been flagged/banned by one bookmaker, they could be blacklisted by other partnered ones. That makes it nearly impossible for professional bettors to make a living via online gambling.
IESnare got installed without users’ consent and was discovered when some gamblers noticed slower-than-usual loading times, hidden scripts running on their devices, and unexplained restrictions. Its discovery gained public traction, and some individuals found detailed logs of their browsing/betting history on their devices on IESnare files. BBC posted an article on this story, sparking a public debate on whether IESnare is a legitimate fraud prevention tool or spyware.
In 2017, many bookmakers quietly stopped using IESnare, replacing it with other tracking methods, which operate similarly but are less detectable.
Ethical/Legal Implications of Bookmaker Tracking
In our eyes, when this discussion pops up, we note that one of our most pressing concerns is how bookmakers collect and use data. What is the level of transparency here? Few platforms fully disclose their tracking practices, keeping users in the dark about what information gets gathered and how. Most of their policies are vague and written in dense legal jargon. Also, their terms and conditions usually have clauses that grant broad permissions to collect and use data, but given their lengthy nature, few read what they are actually agreeing to.
Regulators have also been slow to address the issue of bookmaker tracking, which has left a sizeable oversight gap. That has been further problematized by many countries having no data protection laws. For the most part, that is why most of our reviewed crypto sportsbooks adhere to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which imposes strict data-handling requirements.
Some in the industry have also voiced concerns about bookies using collected data to identify vulnerable users and targeting them with personalized offers. The info they have gathered can also be used to discriminate against certain users, such as professional bettors, and in the case of a data breach, exposing the sensitive information of a vast network of people to criminals.
The way forward is for gambling operators to offer greater transparency, ask for informed consent, supply greater user education, and for regulators to step in and introduce industry-specific guidelines for data collection.
You, as a gambler, consider the Brave browser, installing tools like NoScript to block third-party scripts and avoiding mobile betting apps altogether. Tech-savvy users may also explore running a virtual machine (VM) for extra isolation, keeping up with news about online tracking, disabling JavaScript if possible, and scanning for suspicious files now and again.
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