• by Wendy Davis , 5 hours ago

Ticketing platform PlayOn Sports, which sells tickets to school events, has agreed to pay a $1.1 million fine for allegedly violating California's privacy law, state officials said Tuesday.

The settlement grew out of the California Privacy Protection Agency's investigation into allegations that PlayOn didn't allow people who purchased tickets through its platform to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal data.

The agency alleged in the settlement order that in 2023 and 2024, PlayOn used cookies, persistent trackers and other technology to collect users' personal information for purposes including advertising.

PlayOn also sold or shared that data with "advertising, social media, and analytics partners," according to the agency.

The company notified users about its data practices via banners, but those banners didn't allow people to reject data sharing, the agency alleged.

Instead, the banners "required consumers to click 'Agree' to the use of these tracking technologies and provided no other way to close the notice banner without clicking on 'Agree,'" the settlement order states.

Smartphone users who purchased tickets through PlayOn's ticketing platform also had to allow data-sharing in order to use their tickets, according to the agency.

The agency also alleged that PlayOn didn't honor commands sent through "opt-out preference signals," which allow consumers to send do-not-share-my-data commands to every site they visit, as opposed to opting out site-by-site.

The agency said that PlayOn revised its privacy policy and notice banners in December 2024, "before hearing from the enforcement division." Those banners now allow consumers to either accept or reject data sharing, and its website processes opt-out preference signals.

A PlayOn spokesperson likewise said it "had already proactively implemented enhancements to its privacy practices" before becoming aware of the agency's inquiry.

The spokesperson said the investigation focused solely on practices prior to December 2024, and that "those matters have since been fully resolved."