California fines PlayOn $1.1 million for forcing students to give up data for tickets
Mar 3rd 2026
State privacy regulators found that PlayOn’s ticketing platform GoFan blocked access to school event tickets unless users agreed to data sales, prompting a $1.1 million fine and a policy change that now lets users opt out.
- CalPrivacy fined PlayOn $1.1 million for requiring ticket buyers to agree to data sharing to access school event tickets.
- GoFan used pop-ups that blocked ticket access unless users accepted terms that allowed sale of their personal data.
- PlayOn works with about 1,400 California schools and owns GoFan, MaxPreps, and NFHS Network.
- The agency says violations happened in 2023 and 2024 and PlayOn changed its privacy policy in December 2024 to allow opt-outs.
- PlayOn does not admit liability in the disciplinary order, which functions as a settlement.
- California law prohibits selling K-12 student data and generally requires companies to offer an easy way to opt out of data collection.