Revealing Ninja’s phone number is just a disguised customer information game

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Tyler ‘Ninjas, Blevins is one of the most popular streamers in the world, although he recently switched from Twitch to the emerging streaming platform Mixer, his popularity shows no signs of abating. Ninja has millions of fans around the world, so his sharing phone number his tweet on twitter, as expected, sparked a huge “wave” of reaction.

However, besides that, there are many more points worth noting. In a video posted at the same time as the tweet announcing his phone number, the streamer asked fans to fill in their information in a form so “can message each person privately”, and even play Fortnite with some registered fans.
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When texting the above number, the sender will receive an automatic reply with a link, which will lead to a form asking for name, gender, birthday, city and email information – provided provided by a marketing company called Community. While fans do agree to receive Ninja-related notifications and marketing materials from the company, a closer look reveals that the above phone numbers are provided by the Community itself – and replies sent may not actually be “handled” by Ninja.

According to Polygon’s investigation, Community’s terms of use show that the company is allowed to use Tyler Blevins’ reputation: “Messages sent by customers can be celebrities, individuals, or influencers. In addition, the company may also send messages on behalf of the above subject on behalf of public relations or other social media representatives.” The messages are not private and are used purely for advertising purposes.
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Community’s privacy policy further states that the information provided in the form is only a fraction of the information this company is collecting. Community also collects IP address, browser, type of device used, location of sender, among other details. Attorney Pete Lewin responded to Polygon’s post noting that the personal information of many Ninja fans is being collected for “non-transparent” reasons.​