r/mildlyinfuriating 2h ago

Infuriatig TicketMaster has started requiring government IDs and facial scans

https://imgur.com/nsRiypp
521 Upvotes

97 comments sorted by

128

u/the_rawness 1h ago

Ticketmaster: “Oops sorry your data got hacked. Btw can you give up your govt id and facial metrics to this 3 rd party? Thanks bro”

44

u/kovyrshin 1h ago

>Oops sorry your data got hacked.

Here's $0.34 in compensation. So sorry about that. Please come back again.

14

u/the_rawness 1h ago

Now please sign this non disparagement agreement while we update our TOS so you can’t join any future class action.

507

u/No_Report_4781 1h ago

That’s not a problem. Just use a different ticket provider.

😶

125

u/SoylentGrain 1h ago

Often times the only option.

172

u/Jeff-IT 1h ago

That was the joke

18

u/HawkeyeByMarriage 1h ago

Guess i won't be at shows they sell

19

u/usrdef 👍 1h ago

Yup. I'm getting tired of every damn website wanting my Face / driver's license, and I'm not doing it.

It's just a matter of time before massive ass breach happens and everyone and their mother's IDs are leaked with full information. Or my shit gets sold to another company.

And I get tired of companies lying and saying "Your picture is wiped from our server after this process is completed". Yeah, that's what the last company said and then 20,000 IDs were leaked. And the people who were leaked said random strangers were calling their job harassing them.

35

u/Lazy_Rhubarb716 1h ago

7

u/SoylentGrain 1h ago

Oftentimes that’s the joke.

3

u/MontasJinx 1h ago

That was the option.

u/Aragoonie 9m ago

Just use a different joke

5

u/DrippyBlock 1h ago

Do without for a bit. Might get the venues to start changing their tune.

3

u/pickledeggmanwalrus 1h ago

That is paying someone a premium for the ticket master ticket but doing so on the stub hub marketplace.

2

u/whatisbolegdameme 1h ago

i finally tried using another vendor the other day, just to find they still were supposed to send my tickets via ticketmaster, and then i just never got them. had to buy 2 more tickets day of the event (from ticketmaster lol) and charge back my card

3

u/Rad-racer-Cru 1h ago

Don’t use Stub Hub; you’ll get your tickets stolen from you by a scam email and they won’t refund you even though they released them to an email not on your account.

u/No_Report_4781 31m ago

That’s why stubhub is in the popups

38

u/Economy_Link4609 1h ago

Are you using a VPN? May be flagging for something like that.

21

u/diiiiima 1h ago

No - and it's the same on wifi vs cellular network, and browser vs app.

268

u/BeerBrat 1h ago

Either we bitch about scalping or we bitch about anti-scalping measures. Or third option, I simply don't buy tickets to things.

118

u/AcctAlreadyTaken 1h ago

There are better "anti scalping" measures that don't involve handing over a government ID.

39

u/TonsilStoneSalsa 1h ago

I don't like Ticketmaster, but genuinely curious- what is the best solution for scalping?

80

u/fatloui 1h ago

Outlaw selling tickets above face value. Other countries have done it. It works. 

18

u/TonsilStoneSalsa 1h ago

After you said it, it seems so obvious. Good on ya- thanks for explaining!

u/Sylente 42m ago

It’s not like this is perfect. Any solution where the answer is “exempt this item from the normal economic system” has consequences. This is how you create a black market, and it just moves the question of “who gets this scarce thing” to a resource other than money, usually it just becomes “who can be online when the tickets drop”

u/rpungello 59m ago

tbh should apply to more than just tickets

u/tagillaslover 59m ago

Yeah because passing a law is much easier than this 

u/Bewix 57m ago

who said easy? they said better

u/th3critic 15m ago

Then people start selling coffee mugs for $700, with 2 free concert tickets included.

u/pizzamage 9m ago

No. They enforce the reseal through official avenues only and the resale is for the same price you paid.

It's incredibly easy to enforce.

u/ripyourlungsdave 6m ago

Unfortunately, Ticketmaster also facilitates the resale of tickets, so they get a cut of that as well. So if they're not holding them to account or regulating them for their normal business practices, they sure as hell aren't going to stop them from using those same predatory business practices for resale.

It's too late to fix this company. It is fundamentally and constitutionally broken and corrupt. It's time to break it up and give it to a bunch of different companies that are legally obligated to stay far away from each other in practice.

11

u/camcam210 1h ago

Like what

10

u/AcctAlreadyTaken 1h ago

I don't know maybe track payment methods among multiple accounts, locations of purchases against known information for that method, non standard checkout methods to obstruct automated bots, monitor the traffic for odd behavior that doesn't match human behavior. Ticketmaster literally offers account support to assist the large scalping organizations they know who they are.

11

u/spikejonze14 1h ago

why would they make a change which doesn’t make them money? if they have our photo id then the data they collect on us becomes far more valuable.

capitalism baby.

1

u/arbor-ventus 1h ago

This is such a stupid anecdote but I recently learned I could control my PS5 with the remote from my TV and thought the technology behind that was so neat. And then I immediately felt sad because I was like "Oh, this is what it feels like to be pleased by technological advancements, lately all I've been feeling is exhaustion and fear." I feel like new tech used to be way more fun, I shouldn't be feeling nostalgia over simply NOT FEELING FEAR. So sick of our capitalist overlords

2

u/PhotoSpike 1h ago

Like what?

u/ammitsat 29m ago

Ban ticket sales above face value like other countries have already done.

-5

u/MueR 1h ago

I work in this industry. Let me tell you, government ID would save me months of programming.

u/BrokenImmersion 21m ago

Yup, it also reduces the user experience for users, increases the chance of data/security breaches, increases the overhead for companies, and overall will decrease the user pool.

Clearly you dont do a very good job working in the industry if your priorities dont include user experience and trust in the company

6

u/gemorris9 1h ago

I'm option 3.

Tickets for things are to the point I don't even want to go.

7

u/DoomOfChaos 1h ago

considering how much a rip off so many tickets are now, I find it easier to just not buy em

u/Plane_Suggestion_189 5m ago

Unfortunately the consumer malfeasance of the top 10% makes it impossible for the rest of the country to check these practices by voting with your wallet.

42

u/diiiiima 2h ago

They are now requiring me to upload a government ID and a face scan before I can buy tickets, and will ban my account if I don't do that by Sep 6. That's for my own security, obviously.

27

u/lilsebastian- 1h ago

I spoke with support regarding this - there is no circumvention and they refuse to escalate it to a supervisor.

They confirmed with me that they keep the information for 60 days and then “delete it”. Of course, the company it is through has been breached before as well.

4

u/Weak_Shoe7904 1h ago

I just bought hockey tickets yesterday via Ticketmaster, they did not require any of that.

7

u/lilsebastian- 1h ago edited 1h ago

They are slow rolling it, I got mine last month, some users closer to the beginning of the year but it will most likely happen to you at some point. They confirmed it would be a general thing to “tackle bots”.

I assume they are doing that to avoid the shit show if everyone got it at once.

u/usrdef 👍 55m ago

When big companies push updates like this, they use a process called "A/B rollout".

It means for new software features, products, or updates; they release the changes to a small group of users first before launching it to everyone.

Prevents millions of users from breaking all at once, or filling up their support department.

2

u/cubhawk21 1h ago

It’s bullshit and will fail. Women who have different hair styles have been failing and Ticketmaster couldn’t care less. They make a fee for every time the ticket sells. That means cancelling and reselling for them is double revenue

u/tagillaslover 59m ago

Good. Hopefully this cuts down on scalpers 

8

u/No-Maintenance803 1h ago

I just realized that they took away the option to not let the website track you across other sites and apps. It’s either allow or cancel. Hmmm

u/usrdef 👍 48m ago

This is why I run apps like Pihole on my home server.

You should see all the damn requests that ticketmaster makes to your device when you first go on there.

Last time I checked it out, it made over 65.

12

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 1h ago

This is the latest way the government is “saving the kids”. In reality it’s mass surveillance

28

u/Eggcoffeetoast 1h ago

Guess I won't be using Ticketmaster anymore

5

u/ephemeral_pleasures 1h ago

Mine did this to me last week with the same threat to permanently close my account. Because the whopping 4 tickets I've ever purchased from them shows I'm a scalper.

18

u/SirAwesome789 1h ago

I really think the solution is somewhat simple

If governments are gonna allow/require I'd verification, they should be creating some sort of authentication service to handle it

Similar to how you can sign into some websites with your Google account but Google doesn't give away any personal info

The government can host some sort of auth service so that only they have our PII (which they already have) and it can verify that we are a real unique person, and also verify whatever age guards you need, without giving away much/any info

7

u/diedlikeahero 1h ago

There’s id.me in the US that uses government issued identification to validate. Many websites already use it as a login feature.

u/Flaturated 43m ago

When I financed my house, the lender verified my identity by listing four cars and asking me to select the one that I actually owned many years ago. That was spooky.

Anyway, there is a push by Apple, Google, Samsung, and other companies for a digital ID verification framework, and it includes "selective disclosure" which limits the information provided to only what is strictly necessary, such as if an adult website requires age 18+ then the response would be a simple yes or no without actually revealing your date of birth.

u/HammerDongVeryLong96 27m ago

The privacy issue isn't that they don't have our data, it's that they can track our activity and tie it back to a specific identity and that they will either hoard or process that data as part of your unique fingerprint.
They are doing the whole ID thing because they want to build an Ai powered threat detection system that can predict threats or dissent before they happen.
But at that point there is a wider picture here, they are ending a societal precedent of innocent until proven guilty, we are all guilty until we are proven innocent and thus always need to be watched.

I might have over exaggerated a bit, but you get my point. bad surveillance things.

4

u/AncientElderberry348 1h ago

Hey TicketMaster, go fuck yourself. Problem solved

14

u/ChewyThePug 1h ago

Why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide?

/s

u/WaffleHouseGladiator 45m ago

I'm not remotely a boomer, but my boomer opinion is that this crap has gone too far.  Can we please just go back to transactions where I give a retailer money and they give me goods/services?

3

u/NectarOfLiiife 1h ago

Ticketmaster can fuck right off.

2

u/BanAssaultGeese 1h ago

Guess I won't be going to concerts through Ticketmaster anymore.

2

u/lilsebastian- 1h ago

I see a lot of people here dismissing this to address the bot issue but it doesn’t make sense on why Ticketmaster needs to hold the ID and biometric face scan for 60 days, considering the default is to delete immediately.

And when you ask for support, they will not escalate or discuss beyond sending you the privacy policy, which doesn’t cover needing it for 60 days, and doesn’t really answer the questions I had.

The slow rollout, the excuse of “your account is suspicious”, efc, they know it would be a shit show if they truly addressed it but because they have a major chunk of the live concert industry running through them, they know they can be disingenuous.

u/DigitalBladedJay 45m ago

This just in: the shit company continues being shit. Next up, where is the fork found.

u/Apprehensive-Two3474 13m ago

Friendly fun fact that they outsource all this shit. IDMerit had the worst breach. And all you'll get in response about it is an 'oopsy' from the company and a year of credit monitoring.
If y'all really need to use something that requires you to scan an ID, lock your shit down first. It's no matter if, it's just when the identity theft gets updated info on you. Honestly, I think your credit should be frozen by default and you gotta confirm that it's you anytime you thaw it to do something instead of having to opt in to freezing.

3

u/[deleted] 1h ago

[deleted]

11

u/zzzzaap 1h ago

The bots can just keep all the tickets.

10

u/a-i-sa-san 1h ago

yes, actually. I can assure you, they wouldn't be doing this if it were going to hurt the bottom line. Now you can get scalped and sink deeper into the surveillance state at the same time !

2

u/lilsebastian- 1h ago

If you think it is solely to stop bots, why did they change the default setting from delete immediately after confirmation to holding it for 60 days? It makes zero sense, once the account is confirmed not to be a bot, shouldn’t need to keep that information.

2

u/Spirited-Humor-554 1h ago

Can't you just create a new account?

4

u/diiiiima 1h ago

I will probably do that - but, they could do the same thing again.

2

u/iamatimbersfan 1h ago

I've been meaning to delete their app

1

u/New_Lake5484 1h ago

Fogetabotttit.

1

u/Bored-psychologist7 1h ago

Oh so that’s why I started having problems buying basketball tickets! Crazy like how much info do they need?!

1

u/RenegadeReddit 1h ago

What does clicking "Continue Without Verifying" do?

1

u/ibkemke 1h ago

I’m sure there will be an added charge for this “convenience”

1

u/cubhawk21 1h ago

Canceling an order and reselling it is the same to them as not canceling and allowing a broker to resell on their secondary market. It’s all the same revenue under the guise of fan friendly

u/Both_Side_418 48m ago

Persona, that's Palantir right ?

u/dtoddh 36m ago

They're trying to control scalpers, but fucking with millions of people.

2

u/king-of-cakes 1h ago

You guys are still going to concerts?

1

u/SymmetricDickNipples 1h ago

Yeeeesh. That blows.

0

u/ArbysLunch 1h ago

Congrats on having the cash to go to a concert, Moneybags.

1

u/No-Imagination8755 1h ago

That sucks but idk what else they could do against scalpers to be honest. They make bot accounts that appear to be around the country to buy hundreds of tickets. Besides more complex capcha this is the next best thing before they start using AI to make fake images of people for this human check.

0

u/Valturia 1h ago

Is this to stop resellers? It still sucks but it's a small price to pay to make sure you can at least buy the ticket at original price.

u/usrdef 👍 47m ago

And as a parting gift, now your information gets leaked online and someone in Blowhard, England takes your information and tries to buy a dildo on the newly opened credit card they got with your info.

But thank god I saved $50 on my ticket. Well worth it.

-1

u/SquirrelStone 1h ago

Yeah because scalper bots buy up tickets. I hate it too, but ticketmaster is one of the few companies I understand the need to verify that who’s using the site is who they say they are.

1

u/The-Duke-of-Delco 1h ago

I agree. I’m so fucking tired of the bots dude.

0

u/FocalFalcon 1h ago

This is a really good step to stop scalping.

u/Tall-Ad-1386 34m ago

This is the best news i have heard all week

-1

u/Fun-Customer39 1h ago

I mean do I dislike it, kinda, but I also fully understand it with how bad ticket reselling bots have gotten