It seems like discussion of this issue has been going on for days now. The amount of info obtained on players (stats - even skill points - and gold budget being most striking) by database snooping seems to be very large, and confers a huge advantage upon teams/players using these techniques:
- in regular PVP, to most efficiently find targets based on stats and income
- to replace scouting during syndicate events, or even decide in advance which battles to contest and which to wait out.
- to estimate gold needed to reach a rank by snooping into your key opponents' data.
- in picking high-scoring battles or targets for PVP tournaments

It seems by now that practically all top 25 (and probably many down to top 100 or 200) teams are using such methods now, and there's even a frickin website. I guess as someone in a team that's found it a bigger and bigger challenge to stay in place, learning that such methods are ubiquitous explains some things.

But more importantly, a surprisingly large number of people are claiming these methods aren't cheating at all. And now that it's been discussed on the site, I'm betting a fair number of teams learning about the methods - or just how widespread they are - will want to switch to them too. This is why it's very important for admins to state the official view on such methods, and whether they are allowed by the terms of service.
- If yes, then make it plain. Then everyone will do it, and no-one will get any competitive advantage out of it. It would be a loss to everyone's enjoyment since it takes out a lot of strategy, but at least it can be a fair loss to everyone.
- If no (as I suspect) then please a) say so and b) do something about it. I am sure you know you need to stop storing and transmitting all info in the clear like this. At least use some obfuscatory methods if you can't encrypt this stuff.

But please address this; the time for ignoring the issue is long past. It's being discussed in your own forums, and everyone knows it's possible.