I recently opened an account to play home games with a few friends, I hadn't had a chance to play any games yet but after 2 weeks of the account being opened, I received the following email
we only use play chips since real money is not allowed in the US. but most troublesome is the privacy issue, how much data is pokerstars retrieving from laptop or cell phones. the user in question was a contact on my phone from an airbnb I stayed at. I created and open the software on a laptop so how did pokerstar see a list of my phone contacts?



Hello,

Due to your close association with the player '********', who has an outstanding issue with us, we have concluded that it is not in the best interest of our players to allow you to continue to play on our site.

We cannot take the risk that player '***********' could gain access to our tables via your account.

This policy has been put in place to protect the integrity of our games. We wish you all the best wherever you decide to play.

Do not attempt to create any other accounts as doing so is a violation of our Terms of Service. If we discover a new account, it will be closed without notice.

You will be liable for any loss that could occur. Should you circumvent our controls by opening or accessing another account with any of our brands and/or group companies, we reserve the right to confiscate any assets contained in the account(s) irrespective of the amount of time it has taken us to identify and confirm the links between the account(s) and/or the account holder(s).

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,

Ger
PokerStars Game Integrity

I rather think that your friend has played with his account on your device at some point. Pokerstars can see your hardware ID. Or that your friend has ever played with your IP (Wifi) or you both used the same IP when you stayed
@ airbnb. They really won't look in your contacts to see if there is anyone who also plays at PS.

As an aside, I see in the message from Stars: "Should you circumvent our controls by opening or accessing another account with any of our brands and/or group companies ...". I didn't know that Stars currently ran under different brand names. I remember Full Tilt, but that's the only other brand I know. Or, are they talking about the different operations in the states, or in the EU?

https://www.starsgroup.com/