The Golden State Warriors could be in serious trouble, and it doesn’t have anything do with Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry or how the team will look on the court this season. The organization has been accused of illegally recording fans that have downloaded the team’s official mobile app, and Marisa Kendall of Silicon Beat brings word of the specifics.
A lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco this week claims the team’s free app secretly uses the microphones on fans’ smartphones to listen to and record their conversations. The app, which lets fans view live scores and share posts from Warriors games on social media, asks for permission to access fans’ microphones, but doesn’t disclose the extent that it listens in, according to the suit, which was reported by The Recorder on Tuesday.
“Even more disconcerting,” the lawyers wrote, “the app turns on the microphone (listening and recording) any time the app is running. No mater if a consumer is actively using the app or if it is merely running in the background: the app is listening.”
That means if a fan is using the app and then navigates away by pressing the phone’s home button, without “hard closing” the app, the app continues to listen.
These allegations are certainly of a severe nature, and the piece goes on to point out that the app has rolled out extensive tracking software that focuses on targeting specific messages to the large number of people that have downloaded the application. The Warriors are one of three defendants — along with the app developer, Yinzcam, and the technology licenser, Signal360 — in the suit, and representatives of the team have elected not to comment to this point.
If the worst of the allegations are true, this is certainly a disturbing trend from the Warriors, as it would cross over the threshold when it comes to invasion of privacy. It will also be interesting to track this case as it progresses, especially amid the basketball-based firestorm that is sure to follow Golden State around throughout the 2016-2017 NBA season.
