Field Dispatch
Ticketmaster lawsuit over privacy concerns | Matt Connarton Unleaashed
Speaker 1: Ticketmaster faces lawsuit over alleged website tracking and surveillance stools.
Speaker 1: This is from Music Businessworldwide dot com.
Speaker 2: I feel like.
Speaker 1: Whenever we talk about lawsuits in the music industry, Ticketmaster's
Speaker 1: name comes.
Speaker 2: Up a lot, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 1: They're constantly getting yes, yes, here's the well, here's the
Speaker 1: newest thing. A new class action lawsuit has been filed
Speaker 1: against Ticketmaster, a leegendist website deploys unauthorized surveillance tools that
Speaker 1: violate California privacy laws. The latest complaint, filed in the
Speaker 1: US District Court for the Central District of California on Monday,
Speaker 1: January five, only listed Ticketmaster as the defendant. The class
Speaker 1: action was led by Solano County, California resident named Jeffrey Scruggs.
Speaker 1: The complaint claims that Ticketmaster employs advertising and analytics trackers
Speaker 1: for from Google, Facebook, TikTok, and Microsoft bing Oh Bing,
Speaker 1: I remember bing.
Speaker 3: I forget that that exists.
Speaker 2: I know, I do too, I didn't even know it
Speaker 2: still existed.
Speaker 1: As well as those operated by Pinterest, Snap and comm
Speaker 1: Score to illegally quote collect, receive and process unquote information.
Speaker 1: Excuse me how to cough information from users, such as
Speaker 1: IP addresses, paid RL's timestamps, and device on or browser characteristics,
Speaker 1: among others. By the way, before we go any further
Speaker 1: with this, I would just say, yeah, I just kind
Speaker 1: of would have assumed that, like, is any of this
Speaker 1: shocking to you?
Speaker 4: No? Shocking el Heck no no. But it raises an
Speaker 4: important issue about privacy. So do you, on the one hand,
Speaker 4: do you want ads that are targeted to what you like?
Speaker 4: Maybe you would like that instead of add that are
Speaker 4: selling trying to sell your products you would have nothing
Speaker 4: to do with, right, Like, But.
Speaker 3: What to what? To what expense?
Speaker 4: Do you want it to know when you turn your
Speaker 4: browser on and off? Do you want it to tell
Speaker 4: what your favorite color is? Do you want it to
Speaker 4: tell what musicians you're looking up or whether you looked
Speaker 4: up something for athletes' foot You know how it could get?
Speaker 4: How much information? Is okay with you? Because once it's out,
Speaker 4: it's out right. Once something gets a net, it's on
Speaker 4: the net. There's no deletion, it's there.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I remember years ago, years and years and years ago,
Speaker 4: when the supermarkets came out with this device that you
Speaker 4: could go around to shop with and it would get
Speaker 4: to know you, and it would tell you if you
Speaker 4: were in a particular aisle, do you want to get
Speaker 4: X again? Or why again? And how privacy wants got
Speaker 4: really said about it. They're like, oh, well they're gonna
Speaker 4: know what you're eating, They're gonna know what you're tagging him,
Speaker 4: you know. And then it was like, oh, I went
Speaker 4: shopping and then I got like five cheese coupons in
Speaker 4: the mail because I bought a lot of cheese. So
Speaker 4: where did that seveiled information come from? So to them
Speaker 4: doing this as they're trying to show you the ads,
Speaker 4: like they want to show you the Doobie Brothers, So
Speaker 4: they want to show you I don't know, kid rock
Speaker 4: whoever it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to me, it's no different than you know, when
Speaker 1: you go on a shopping site like Amazon and you
Speaker 1: see products selected for you, suggested for you, I should
Speaker 1: say that by your recent history that you might like, yes,
Speaker 1: things that you're actually interested in.
Speaker 2: That's how all of it works.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well why does it always try and show me
Speaker 4: something I've already bought?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe you want to buy it again? No,
Speaker 2: maybe you need another one. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I never understand that one. Why you showing me something
Speaker 4: I already bought. Well crazy, But you know, so it
Speaker 4: comes down to privacy, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But the I have an unpopular opinion about that,
Speaker 1: and that is this. I'm just speaking for me personally.
Speaker 1: I couldn't care less, couldn't care less about any of it.
Speaker 1: I have no privacy to protect because guess what, none
Speaker 1: of us do anymore. I mean, come on, because this
Speaker 1: toothpaste is so far out of the tube.
Speaker 2: Who cares?
Speaker 1: Some people I know don't want What I just said
Speaker 1: is an unpopular opinion.
Speaker 2: Well, I think probably most people.
Speaker 4: Don't put the browsers in the setting that allows them
Speaker 4: to browse and do things without being cast.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that, because that's an easy solution. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just put it in an incognio mode and go crazy.
Speaker 1: That's all you gotta do.
Speaker 4: That.
Speaker 3: Well, now, it's easy for you to say that, but
Speaker 3: you got.
Speaker 2: To look that it's easy to do it.
Speaker 4: You've got to look at it in the legal sense
Speaker 4: of the word of how much is it not? How
Speaker 4: much is what is crossing the line? Is there a
Speaker 4: line on your privacy that you don't want cross that
Speaker 4: you do want the laws to protect because you don't
Speaker 4: want companies, you know, gathering that like do you want
Speaker 4: the local hospital to start sending you bereavement things because
Speaker 4: it got connected that you had somebody that passed.
Speaker 1: But it wouldn't offend me. I wouldn't be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is insensitive. I can't believe I'm getting this.
Speaker 4: I but we But somebody else might be like, why
Speaker 4: not does.
Speaker 3: Anybody know this?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's my way of looking at is
Speaker 1: it's an unpopular opinion.
Speaker 2: I just don't care. I've never cared. I don't care.
Speaker 4: You're an oddity because you're one of those people that
Speaker 4: is I am who I am as I am you.
Speaker 4: You don't have to remember his story because it's always truth, right,
Speaker 4: you know so, and that unfortunately.
Speaker 3: These days could be kind of rare.
Speaker 4: So if you're somebody that's trying to hide behind a cloud,
Speaker 4: you don't want the surveiled. Or if you mean there
Speaker 4: is a certain perspective to respect that people do have
Speaker 4: a right to privacy.
Speaker 3: People do have a right to be safe within their
Speaker 3: own environment. They have that right. So how far is
Speaker 3: it okay to let a company go?
Speaker 2: Do you have a line?
Speaker 1: So I would argue again and think this will be
Speaker 1: an unpopular opinion. People will disagree with me. But if
Speaker 1: you have if you want to have that expectation of privacy,
Speaker 1: you have to take some simple steps to do that,
Speaker 1: like putting your browser in incognito mode for example, or
Speaker 1: using a VPN. But if you like, this is the
Speaker 1: part that will be unpopular with people. I think at
Speaker 1: this point in twenty twenty six, you have no more
Speaker 1: just using your browser as is and and just looking
Speaker 1: at whatever you're looking at. You have no you should
Speaker 1: have no more greater expectation of more greater. You should
Speaker 1: have no greater expectation of privacy doing that, then you
Speaker 1: should in a public place having a conversation with someone disagree.
Speaker 4: I'm sure most people will right to be if you're
Speaker 4: in your home doing whatever it is you're doing, as
Speaker 4: long so long as it's not an illegal horrible thing,
Speaker 4: you have right to And the VPN isn't going to
Speaker 4: solve this problem because remember in the article they talked
Speaker 4: about it's collecting the IP address paige Ur. Else having
Speaker 4: a VPN doesn't matter. That VPN only hides where you are.
Speaker 2: If you put it in an incognito.
Speaker 4: You could go for incognito, But do you know whether
Speaker 4: or not this technology to get around that?
Speaker 3: Can they still look at it?
Speaker 4: And if there's no law prohibiting it, then it is
Speaker 4: legal State of New Hampshire. If it is not a
Speaker 4: law specifically saying it's illegal, then it is legal in
Speaker 4: the State.
Speaker 3: Of New Hampshire. That's how our laws are.
Speaker 4: So if there's no law that says I don't have
Speaker 4: the right to invade your privacy, and look at what
Speaker 4: did you buy off a ticket Master? When did you
Speaker 4: buy it? What venues are you going to? And can
Speaker 4: that information then be gotten out there? Can that information
Speaker 4: then be sold? Can somebody use it to surveil.
Speaker 1: To people always complained about all I don't want my
Speaker 1: information being sold that that's been going that was going
Speaker 1: on pre Internet, like if you've ever gotten a piece
Speaker 1: of junk mail that friedmation.
Speaker 3: But that doesn't make it right, that doesn't make it right. Well, no,
Speaker 3: that's not how it now listened to you. It doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be. That's how it works.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 3: If that's how it works.
Speaker 4: And Ticketmaster can say that's how it works, we've got
Speaker 4: the monopoly.
Speaker 3: That's why you guys.
Speaker 4: Should just you know, sell your tickets through us and
Speaker 4: suck it up that you're getting, you know, two cents
Speaker 4: on the penny or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: You know there's I don't I don't like that.
Speaker 1: That's just like how it is like even pre internet.
Speaker 1: Like you subscribe to a magazine and you start getting
Speaker 1: offers in your mailbox for other magazines that might be
Speaker 1: interesting to you. Why does that happen because the company
Speaker 1: that you bought that magazine subscription from took your information
Speaker 1: and sold it to somebody.
Speaker 4: Ever, ninety percent of companies out there have the ability
Speaker 4: that you can say no, do not share. You have
Speaker 4: the ability to say no, do not share on a
Speaker 4: lot of these websites, a lot of these companies. You
Speaker 4: have that right to say no. So they can sell
Speaker 4: everybody else, but you sure if they do sell you,
Speaker 4: then they're violations. They're violating your privacy and they're not
Speaker 4: respecting the choice you made to say no, I don't
Speaker 4: want you to share my hell, I don't want you
Speaker 4: to know that I'm buying hemorrhoid cream or I'm buying.
Speaker 3: Athletes foot stuff.
Speaker 4: Like maybe people don't so what the other side of
Speaker 4: that coin, The unintended consequence can be as bad as
Speaker 4: somebody doesn't go get treatment for something because they're too
Speaker 4: afraid of the surveillance of somebody finding out that what
Speaker 4: that is that they have a treatment for.
Speaker 3: You gotta think worst case, best case scenario. Sure, and
Speaker 3: if the.
Speaker 4: Unintended consequences can be harmful and hurt somebody, then there
Speaker 4: is a call to say we have a right to privacy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I don't think that just because the Internet was created
Speaker 4: that means that you lose your.
Speaker 1: Right to pri No. I just think it's no. I
Speaker 1: agree with that in principle. I just think it's uh.
Speaker 1: I think the expectator people need to adjust their expectations.
Speaker 3: But I want to know what your line is.
Speaker 4: If they're saying they're they're collecting what was that word
Speaker 4: they use, Oh, browser characteristics?
Speaker 3: What in the heck does that actually mean?
Speaker 2: I don't even know. I just I just know I personally.
Speaker 3: Would that mean accessing the camera?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: That would be bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't want that happening. I want some prohibiting it.
Speaker 1: And there is Oh, that's definitely against a lot of sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a private if what if you're using a website
Speaker 4: that utilizes your camera? If there isn't a lot of
Speaker 4: it says that website can't then take whatever you utilize
Speaker 4: that camera with and sell it to somebody.
Speaker 3: Then they get to sell it to somebody.
Speaker 4: What if I'm using an online thing to size out
Speaker 4: my eyeglasses, to buy my eyeglasses, to put in my prescription.
Speaker 4: That's my private information, whether you think it's important or
Speaker 4: not important information, that's my private that.
Speaker 2: Would be protected by hippo. Wouldn't it anywhere?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: Not?
Speaker 3: Maybe? Maybe not. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I would think it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, because it because the ceiling with an
Speaker 1: eyeglass prescription can an aspect of it.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: Can they get away with sharing any of the other stuff?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Probably I don't like who you bought the glasses from?
Speaker 1: And yeah probably yeah?
Speaker 4: You know so ticket masters some kind of what are
Speaker 4: they doing on the back end is my thing? Like okay,
Speaker 4: time stamps, they know when you're up, they know when
Speaker 4: you're buying your tickets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they know when to send out.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? They know it target cool? Cool?
Speaker 2: Really show me, show me what you want to sell
Speaker 2: me you want to Maybe we're.
Speaker 3: Getting closer and closer to Big Brother then.
Speaker 2: Closer and closer. We're already there, We've been there for
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 4: But in the aspect of a private business, do they
Speaker 4: have the right to investigate you, to surveil you in
Speaker 4: such a way?
Speaker 2: Eh? You think I'm interesting enough? You want to investigate
Speaker 2: and surveil me, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well that's my.
Speaker 4: That's my ass that's my personal opinion as well. But
Speaker 4: that can be my personal opinion. That doesn't mean it
Speaker 4: has to be forced to be everybody else.
Speaker 2: No, I don't I know.
Speaker 3: I have the air on the side of safety first.
Speaker 4: So the right to privacy should supersede the right for
Speaker 4: the company to be able to sell the information or
Speaker 4: to collect this data.
Speaker 3: How far deep browser characteristics means? I don't know.
Speaker 4: And could they Well here, let me throw this at you.
Speaker 4: Could they utilize any of this information against the artists?
Speaker 4: Could they collect data using these surveiled technologies that helps
Speaker 4: them buy new ways to nicol and I'm the artists,
Speaker 4: so they get even less? We have how many times
Speaker 4: we talked about how many how much money the artists
Speaker 4: don't get?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Could that be utilized to do it even further?
Speaker 1: Well, if you want to look at it, so The
Speaker 1: article is up at music Business Worldwide dot com. There's
Speaker 1: a bit more to it, but but like I said Ticketmaster,
Speaker 1: they're always in trouble for something, and they're.
Speaker 4: Always trying to get more for less. So protect the artists,
Speaker 4: watch out for each other.
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