Fiend at Court Unplugged
When a player enters a USTA tournament, the web interface collects “additional information” including an email address and phone number. There is a checkbox which must be selected to allow that information to be shared with the tournament organizer. The fact that the player has to grant permission for their contact information to be shared in that situation is a sign that the USTA considers that information to be personal information.
The USTA does not use the information it has collected from its members to market tennis tournaments to its membership. That lamentation was the subject of yesterday’s post. The USTA may have policies that restrict how its members personal information can be used. In fact, yesterday I used the word “antiquated” when speculating on that as a possible cause.
I used to help the Umpire Who Gave Birth to me run a very large junior tournament conducted annually in my hometown. Back in the day, people would fill out paper entry forms and mail them into the tournament. Those forms did not include email addresses or mobile phone numbers, because neither of those was a thing. However the data included both a postal mailing address and a landline phone number. Since the player was mailing that information direct to the tournament, perhaps it was understood that people running the event would have access to it.
There is considerable evidence that some current tournament directors are retaining email addresses and phone numbers provided to them beyond the end of the event. I receive emails advertising future tournament playing opportunities from some of those directors. Probably the USTA would be upset at the resourceful tournament organizers who do that. I am not naming names. It is of benefit to me to be informed and reminded about tournaments that I might want to engage in.
Recently I have been told that the USTA does not share information about its members with other industry organizations, specifically the National Women’s Tennis Organization. (NWTO) Additionally, the word on the street is that the USTA is either unwilling or unable to send targeted emails to its members on behalf of a third party organization. That made me curious enough to examine the USTA privacy policy.
We may disclose your personally identifiable information as well as passively collected information to third parties located in the United States and/or any other country:
Excerpt from USTA Privacy Policy
i. to our affiliates;
ii. to our sponsors;
iii. to other tennis related organizations (including USTA sections and districts);
iv. to select companies or organizations which we believe may offer products, services, materials or information of interest to visitors to this Site;
v. to third parties we use to support our business (including fulfillment services, technical support, delivery services, chat service providers, email service providers, forum service providers, advertisement sales and management services and financial institutions);
vi. in connection with the sale, assignment or other transfer of the business of this Site to which the information relates; or
vii. where required by applicable laws, court orders or government regulations.
I am not an attorney, but that privacy policy sure makes it look like the USTA could theoretically share that data to an organization like the NWTO. I feel like I am missing something.
Last weekend I played a USTA National Level 2 tournament hosted by the Westwood Country Club in Austin, Texas. I already knew the answer, but just to be sure I verified that none of my peers from Austin received any information from the USTA notifying them of the upcoming event. Tournament participation might increase if people were aware that tournaments are occurring in their area. Call me crazy.
Tomorrow I will consider another reason the USTA does not market tournaments to its membership. It is all about data management.
USTA Privacy Policy, USTA Web Site, viewed 4 June 2021.
