Ticketmaster Hopes To Speed Up Event Access By Scanning Your Face (engadget.com)

Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation, has announced that they have teamed up with and invested in a face recognition company called Blink Identity. The ticket sales giant may have plans to scan your face instead of a ticket to grant you access to a venue. Engadget reports: In its first quarter financial report (PDF), Live Nation has explained that Blink has "cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show." According to Blink's website, its system can register an image of your face as soon as you walk past a sensor. Blink's technology can then match it against a large database in half a second -- in a blink, so to speak. It's also apparently powerful enough that you don't even have to slow down for its system to recognize you: Just walk normally, and if the technology gets a match, it'll automatically open doors or turnstiles to let you in.

Comments

Scanning a ticket is never the slowdown

[Rockets84]

Scanning a ticket is never the slowdown at the entrance to a venue where I live. It's security do bag searches of people in front of who want to bring them into the venue. Of course it isn't really about security, it's about making sure you're not bringing outside food or drink so they can gouge you for food & drink at the venue. I've suggested to the venues that they should have lines for people that bringing bags to speed it up but they don't seem interested or "it would be confusing for other patrons".

Re:Scanning a ticket is never the slowdown

[Rockets84]

To stop scalping could be useful but if I buy 5 tickets for my family, 2 adults & 3 children, I wouldn't want my children's facial data in some database controlled by Ticketmaster of all people. Ticketmaster aren't exactly a glowing example of good corporate citizenry and knowing them they'd find ways to monetise this additional data.

Re:Scanning a ticket is never the slowdown

[geekmux]

It's mostly to stop ticket touts selling on tickets at inflated prices.

Well, now that we've unwrapped this bullshit burrito, let's get down to the corn-riddled meat of it. This isn't about curbing inflated ticket prices. This isn't about protecting vendors who thrive on gouging customers with onsite food services. This isn't even about security.

This is about building a fresh database of facial recognition data, to include men, women, and children. This is about testing the accuracy of said system. This is about testing the tolerance level of the masses to accept such surveillance as the new "norm" in our world.

In other words, this is about Control.

If the name on the ticket doesn't match your id, you don't get in.

Two years ago no one was talking about this. Now, matching a physical person to every ticket sale is suddenly a critical requirement? Also remember who ultimately pays for a mult-million dollar system like this, as if ticket "service fees" weren't high enough. Oh, and let's not forget about the massive amount of additional law enforcement resources that will be showing up at venues like this. They will be there to abuse the new do-my-job-for-me system to literally scan the masses for wanted criminals, and perform arrests onsite. Your service fees and tax dollars at work. I haven't even started down the potential rabbit hole of abuse, and that's before this database inevitably gets sold and/or stolen.

When people bitch about an Orwellian future, they should remember that silence coming from the masses defines acceptance.

Re:One more reason.

[b0s0z0ku]

Go to concerts at bars and small venues where entry is cash at the door and there's no security theater bullshit.