Using Sharkscope at PS

A few days ago I was playing in a Stud HI\Lo Sit n Go. A player there was saying how he wanted to look up a bad player at the table using Sharkscope. Then he goes on to say that using Sharkscope now is "illegal" with your Pokerstars client open.
I emailed PS support about the matter and they sent me a rather lengthy Email saying that yes they dont allow using Sharkscope any longer, because its unfair to people that dont want their ROI and other stats to be known to the public... and anyone giving any information about ROI or stats in the PS chat would get a chat ban and possible account suspensions...
I dont think that Sharkscope gives anyone a edge. and I did use it from time to time looking up players but I never typed any of that information in the chat for other players to see...
I was just wondering what anyone else thinks about this issue

I don't really see the problem, I mean, can't ppl use other clients of this nature to find the same shit out anyways. Like OPR, at the same time, or is it like this for all of them? If it's like that for all of them, then I don't mind this rule at all, because it's actually somewhat fair to all those companies, and not to mention the players that don't know about the other sites. That being said and done, if that's not the case then I don't agree with this rule at all, because, like stated others can use other sites to get the same info about you (without you even knowing as to what site there getting this info from in the first place).

Thank you for your Email. PokerStars has been listening to recent
player feedback regarding SharkScope.

We want to limit the amount of information that third party poker results
websites can publish because of our strong commitment to upholding the
integrity of our games. We oppose websites publishing player
profitability data by default for two key reasons:

Firstly, many of our players simply don't want their ROI information to
be publicly available. They have a right to privacy of this information.

Secondly, it gives an unfair advantage to those players who are able to
obtain ROI data about players who have not consented for their
information to be shown.

We have been working with various sites that currently display player
profitability data and the vast majority of those sites have agreed to
modify the default settings for the display of player data. Sites who
are working with us have agreed that profitability data will only be
available on players who have themselves specifically opted in, thus
giving their consent for their profitability data to be displayed on
that service. The default setting will be that tournament cashes only
will be displayed.

The sites who intend to comply with our data policy also agree to allow
players to opt out totally from their service, so that zero information
will be displayed about them.

Among the sites that have agreed to comply and that will remain
permitted are:

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/thepokerdb/
http://www.officialpokerrankings.com
http://arcatum.net/startracker
http://www.playerpeek.com/
http://www.pokerprolabs.com

Note that these sites might not necessarily be able to show all the
information they currently display, once opt-in is fully functional.

SharkScope has refused to remove player profitability and ROI data by
default and therefore their service now falls into the category of
prohibited for use in conjunction with the PokerStars Client.
SharkScope will remain a prohibited service, for the reasons listed
above. We ask that players do not use it at all in conjunction with
PokerStars - the website, the HUD, or any other future tools that they
might develop.

You may still check your own stats provided the PokerStars client is not
running.

PokerStars will focus its enforcement efforts predominantly on limiting
the effectiveness of SharkScope and other dataminers by preventing their
ability to extract the data from the PokerStars client without either
the permission of PokerStars, or the players concerned.

We will not be closing accounts of players found to be using SharkScope.
Instead, we will be working hard to ensure that the data gathered by
SharkScope is incomplete and unreliable. We will, however, be warning
players who "shout out" statistics in chat, under our "abuse of other
players" chat rules. To report such instances, please call a Chat
Moderator using the tools built into the PokerStars client.

We believe that this policy will deliver on our commitment to listening
to players who have overwhelmingly asked us to prevent SharkScope from
publishing their private information, while not being heavy handed
against the many players who aren't aware of the rules against
SharkScope, or who are concerned about their browsing privacy.

As always, we welcome feedback on this policy, so please email us
anytime at support@pokerstars.com. We will work hard to deliver the best
possible poker games, with the highest standards of integrity now and
into the future.


Regards,

Howard
PokerStars Support Team

http://www.pokerprolabs.com/topshark/topshark.aspx

I don't use Sharkscope, never have, likely never will. As to the 'unfair advantage' - of course it is. Allowing it to be used during table play would be no different than a player in a live game running to the rail every hand to check his laptop stats on the rest of the table players.

Sure, online poker is complex and unique apart from playing live, but data mining and data retrieval during play is not what poker was ever intended to be. Why did they develop Sharkscope and similar programs? To give a player who buys it - an advantage. If it didn't, it wouldn't sell. If the program was only to track your own performance - fine.

ROI and similar data IS a privacy issue. How much is in a poker account, how much I've spent, and how much I've made and how I did it, is nobody else's business. If you think it is fine, then maybe you could make copies of your checkbook, bank statements, pay stubs, stock portfolio and a copy of your IRS filing for the last 3 years and post them on a public website for us to look them over. ...

I totally agree with pokerstars on this and commend them for taking a stand on this issue. Looking up your own stats is fine, looking up someones stats after playing with them, I'm pretty much fine with, but you should not be able to look up people while at the table with them.

I think showing stats is pretty lame, you should just play poker and not worry about how good or bad a person is. When you sit down at a live table, you don't know how people play until you play with them. Call me old fashion.

I personally dont agree with sites giving out player information.

whatever happened to privacy ?

OMG I looked up my stats and I SUCK!

I agree with PS and find it the best for that reason. Their reputation for their player's interests can be an example for the other online card rooms to follow. It's not by fluke PS has over 200k players online at once.