Tech firm fined $1.1m by California for selling high-school students’ data

GoFan penalized for breaching privacy laws after students used service to sign up for football games and school prom

The California Privacy Protection Agency has fined tech company GoFan $1.1m for swiping and selling data from high school students across the state who used the service to sign up for events including football games, school plays and senior prom.

Before signing up for school events, software by GoFan - a ticketing business owned by PlayOn, a media company that streams high school sports games - prompted users to accept conditions, including allowing the company to collect users' personal information and sell it to advertisers. Users could only proceed to buy their tickets if they hit a white agree" button. They did not have the option to opt out.