Data ownership in individual sports: Narrative review

Background. The massive use and consumption of the digital age, combined with constant technological advances, has silently allowed the collection and excessive use of each person's personal data. When extrapolated by science and applied to sport, they can respond to the challenges of the actors/members, but the question arises: who owns the data collected from athletes? Objectives. The aim of this narrative review was to understand through the specialized literature the question of who owns the collected data. Methods. A narrative review was carried out through studies indexed in the following electronic databases: PubMed and Web Of Science. The following keywords were selected: Big Data, Sport, and Ethical, and a time cut was applied in the last 5 years. There was no specification regarding the language, and to broaden the discussion, articles and review articles focusing on Big data and Biometric data were also analyzed. Results. The results point to a massive use of technology, collection and overuse of personal data, raising legal and ethical problems regarding the ownership of the data. Conclusion. The evolution of technology, when combined with sports performance, creates legal and ethical problems leading athletes and actors to expose their data in an abusive way, creating the need to draw up individual agreements before starting any project.