Just got this from the PokerStars people:

Hello,

It has come to our attention at PokerStars that you are accessing a prohibited third party website known as “SharkScope.com” during your game play.

Perhaps you were unaware that the use of SharkScope was against the rules,  but use of this software under any circumstances is against our terms of service. Those terms of service are located here:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/tos/

Among them are these terms:

5.4. EXTERNAL PLAYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS (EPA). PokerStars
prohibits those External Player Assistance Programs (”EPA
Programs”) which are designed to provide an “Unfair Advantage”
to players. PokerStars defines “External” to mean computer
software…and non-software-based databases or profiles (e.g.
web sites and subscription  services). PokerStars defines
an “Unfair Advantage” as any  instance in which a User
accesses or compiles information  on other players beyond
that which the User has personally observed through the
User’s own game play. We encourage you to read our
Prohibited Online Software FAQ at:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/prohibited/

As SharkScope provides statistics based upon a large database of hands in which you did not play, it is considered to be in violation of this policy.

We are aware that many who receive this alert do not subscribe to SharkScope, but do use the 5 free daily lookups to check their own stats.  We do not distinguish between such uses, however, and even this use of SharkScope is prohibited.

For a brief transition period, we will only be issuing this alert.  We ask that you stop using SharkScope immediately.  On November 15, we will begin closing the accounts of players found to be using SharkScope despite having received and acknowledged a warning.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter, and for helping us to keep PokerStars’ games a fair and level playing field for all players.

Best Regards,

PokerStars Game Security

Okay. That’s nice. I replied:

Hi,

I use sharkscope as an important tool to keep my own PRIVATE website up to date with information, as it’s the only FREE way of checking my personal statistics. Obviously I’ve checked friends and other players, but that’s PRIVATE use of a PUBLIC and FREE tool.

As soon as I got this message I got on the phone with my lawyer and even though he will look into this more in-depth, he advised me to contact you letting you know the extend in which I use sharkscope — and let you know I feel this is part of my freedom. It is not an unfair advantage, and your interpretation of my sharkscope use is not only ungrounded but also based on unfair speculation, which both me and my lawyer feel is illegal.

I look forward to discussing this with you. My website can be found on tehjinxpoker.com, you’ll see sharkscope takes an important part in my daily updates.

Please be in touch. I look forward to hearing your toughts about the legal details — as I believe your TOS to be unrightfully limiting my free use of the internet.

Kind regards,

************
Pokerstars handle: Teh Jinx

However, what I feel is way more worrying is PokerStars checking my personal internet usage for sites they don’t approve of. Is this legal? Can they just tap into my Firefox instance and LOOK AT WHAT SITES I’M BROWSING? I’ve asked PokerStars to point me to wherever I gave them permission to do so — as I honestly feel very very threatened about these kind of things.

I’m taking this pretty seriously, even though I’m a pocket change poker player. Using the web is a freedom, and I feel freedom is important. If PokerStars is going Big Brother, I’m considering taking them up on it and fighting them intruding my privacy.

Let’s see where this ends…