California fines national high school ticketing platform $1.1 million for privacy violations

The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has fined the leading high school media and technology company PlayOn Sports $1.1 million for not allowing users to easily opt-out of tracking technologies.

PlayOn Sports also has been ordered to change its privacy and opt-out practices, according to a CPPA press release.

The CPPA alleges that PlayOn Sports collected students' personal data and delivered targeted advertising by using tracking technologies without providing a “sufficient way to opt out.”

All PlayOn Sports users were affected by the practice, including large numbers of high school students nationwide, CPPA said in its order, which was issued Friday but announced Tuesday.

PlayOn Sports users were forced to click “agree” to the tracking, CPPA said, or they could not use tickets they had paid for or view the company’s websites.

The company told users to opt-out via the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance, CPPA said, a practice which broke California law requiring firms to provide their own tool for consumers to opt-out. PlayOn Sports also did not clearly tell consumers its privacy practices, CPPA said.

PlayOn Sports’ GoFan platform is used nationwide to sell digital tickets to high school sporting events, theater performances and dances. Students also use the platform to stream games and access statistics about teams and players.

In California alone, about 1,400 schools use PlayOn Sports and the company is the “official ticketing platform” for the state’s governing body for high school sports.

A spokesperson for PlayOn Sports said in a statement that it takes “data privacy and protection very seriously.”

The statement said that the company has changed its privacy practices and that even before the CPPA inquiry it had “already proactively implemented changes to our privacy practices to meet evolving regulatory expectations.” 

“Throughout this process, we have worked cooperatively with the CPPA, which credited PlayOn for its privacy enhancements in the settlement order.”

“Students trying to go to prom or a high school football game shouldn’t have to leave their privacy rights at the door,” Michael Macko, CPPA’s head of enforcement, said in a statement. “You couldn’t attend these events without showing your ticket, and you couldn’t show your ticket without being tracked for advertising.”

PlayOn has been ordered to provide easy-to-understand disclosures, perform risk assessments and put proper opt-out methods in place, the press release said.

It also must follow California law, which bars the selling or sharing of consumer personal data for anyone under age 13 for any circumstance and anyone under age 16 without affirmative opt-in consent.