Concert Ticket Retailer AXS Collects Personally Identifiable Data Through Its App, Which is Mandatory To Download, and Sells It To 3rd Party Without Anonymizing (theoutline.com)

AXS, a digital marketplace operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), is the second largest presenter of live events in the world after Live Nation Entertainment (i.e. Ticketmaster). Paris Martineau of The Outline reports that the company forces customers to download a predatory app which goes on to snatch up a range of personally identifiable data and sells it to a range of companies, including Facebook and Google, without ever anonymizing or aggregating them. From the report: The company requires users to download an app to use any ticket for a concert, game, or show bought through AXS, and it doesn't come cheap. AXS uses a system called Flash Seats, which relies on a dynamically generated barcode system (read: screenshotting doesn't work) to fight off ticket scalping and reselling. [...] Here's a brief overview of all of the information that can be collected from just the mobile app alone, nearly all of which is shared with third parties without being anonymized or aggregated: first and last name, precise location (as determined by GPS, WiFi, and other means), how often the app is used, what content is viewed using the app, which ads are clicked, what purchases are made (and not made), a user's personal advertising identifier, IP address, operating system, device make and model, billing address, credit card number, security code, mailing address, phone number, and email address, among many others. [...] AXS also shares the personal data collected on its customers with event promoters and other clients, none of whom are bound even by this (extremely lax) privacy policy.

Comments

4 letters

[Tomahawk]

GDPR

It's because of stuff like this that the GDPR was put in place in the EU. The rest of the world really should follow suit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re:stoopit

[Anonymous Coward]

So what if (like my wife) you don't have a smart phone?

I frequently ask the same question, since like your wife, I don't have a smart phone either.

I can't tell you how often some helpful idiot of a cashier or whatever tries to direct me to their app .. sorry, no, don't have apps, don't want apps. What's that? You can't answer my question but you're sure the company app can help? Nope, sorry, I'm simply going somewhere else.

Fucking apps. Everything is a goddamned app. And every fucking one of them primarily exists to scrape your personal information and sell it. At this point, I think it's safe to conclude that all apps are written by incompetent morons on behalf of greedy assholes, so why would I trust anybody's app?

Sorry, no, I'm not playing that game.

Let me know when we've reached peak app, and I can stop hearing about it.

Re:Credit card #?

[Khyber]

The credit card companies will absolutely do something. That this info is easily identified means it's not protected or encrypted, which runs afoul of a slew of PCI-DSS compliance rules. The credit companies will stop anything of this size from happening. They do not want the fraud hit.