There’s A Major Lawsuit Against The Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors have received a lot of backlash and even a lawsuit, against their free app, that reportedly records people’s conversations. The suit names the Warriors, Signal360, which licenses the technology at issue, and Yinzcam (which developed the app) as defendants.

The primary owner of the NBA team is Joe Lacob, who is a partner at a major Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The team was one of the first in the franchise to develop its own mobile app that lets fans view live scores and share posts from Warriors games on social media.

A class action suit filed in San Francisco is alleging that the Warriors’ app records users with phones’ microphone and tracks their location even when not using the program.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court this week in San Francisco and is claiming that the team’s free app secretly uses the microphones on fans’ smartphones to listen to and record their conversations.

According to the suit, the app asks for permission to access fans’ microphones, but doesn’t disclose the extent that it listens in.
The lawyers wrote, “Even more disconcerting, 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.” […]
The lawyers are also claiming that the Warriors app employs new “beacon” technology. This technology allows it to track where the app’s users are.

Lauren Cooley, chief operating officer at Signal360, denied the allegations in an e-mailed statement.

“We have been made aware of the suit and it appears there is a misunderstanding about how our technology works,” she wrote. “Our technology does not intercept, store, transmit, or otherwise use any oral content for marketing purposes or for any other purpose.”
Both Yinzcam and the Warriors denied to comment on the matter.