That's because they are and it has probably caused more harm than good by leading to the creation of these strategies.
Technicaly it isn't insider trading as they aren't getting data from the company. They are guessing it from a private company that is exempt from such guidance.
The Capital One researchers were also not getting any information from Chipotle. There were getting some information about Chipotle (specifically, that Capital One customers were spending a lot of money there). This information was not from inside Chipotle, but was also not available to the whole market.
Unless you can explain otherwise, it's exactly analogous to the situation described above.
That clears it up, thank you. So what they did automatically counts as insider trading because they misappropriated the information from their employer.
Technicaly it isn't insider trading as they aren't getting data from the company. They are guessing it from a private company that is exempt from such guidance.