Arsenal have spent ‘at least £50,000′ on KonnecTo, a platform that would help them to collect and analyse customers’ personal interactions, according to a report.

TheAFCBell investigated Arsenal’s links to the company, and reportedly discovered that the club had made this significant £50,000 investment in it. The Gunners initially tested KonnecTo for 10 weeks as part of their innovation lab programme, but now it seems they’ve decided to take their relationship further.

According to their organisation description, KonnecTo “enables brands to analyse customers’ past and present personal interactions”.

They reportedly “deliver actionable insights” to “help you to understand your fans’ preferences, attitudes and feelings towards your team”, which all sounds very Cambridge Analytica. It’s run by a former leader of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, Ezer Nahom.

They also claim to be able to help Arsenal (or any of their other customers) to pick their next major sponsorship deal wisely, or improve their marketing campaigns. They do emphasise that they want to collect information “transparently”, at least, but it’s hard to know exactly what that means.

If it helps Arsenal to get a big new sponsorship deal, or make more money in some other way without invading fan privacy, then great. That fan privacy part is key though.