Ticketing Platform Uses Facial Recognition To Ban Unsafe Concertgoers

A new ticketing platform has been created to use facial technology to detect customers’ social media content in order to potentially help ban people from the show who post offensive content online, use stolen credit cards to purchase tickets, or attempt to tout their seats.

Vertus Fusion was created by Richard Ryan and his fellow directors, who are the co-founders of the security firm SentiaGPR. The platform can be used by venues, artists, and ticket providers to scan through social media content via certain algorithms. Ahead of the event, ticket buyers would need to take a photo of themselves which would be used for facial recognition. Then, the platform can search to see if the customer has posted hate speech online before issuing a ticket. Additionally, the platform can cancel tickets of concertgoers who used stolen credit cards to try and score tickets or stop ticket touts who are buying multiple tickets for resale.

This new platform follows multiple catastrophes across the world at concerts – like Ariana Grande’s Manchester show that ended in a bombing or the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead. Ryan told Daily Mail UK that Vertus Fusion monitors social media output around an event with a “geo-fence,” which allows it to monitor posts on more than 40 media platforms in any language.

“Terrorists want to put this information out there to say what they are going to do,” he said. “We can put a geo-fence around any arena in the world, in any language, and monitor it. If someone comes up as a threat, we analyse that person’s profile by going to different places on the web where we can make a decision on risk.”

He believes that this platform can be extended to other parts of peoples daily lives like railroad stations, airports, and other busy environments in an attempt to “prevent harm to people by using what is out there on the internet.”

Facial recognition has certainly been a hot topic over the past few years. Last May, Ticketmaster announced its move into facial recognition territory with Blink Identity, which would enable concertgoers to use their face as their ticket into a show. While some artists like Dierks Bentley rejected the idea due to privacy concerns, others welcome the technology. Taylor Swift reportedly used facial recognition to detect stalkers during her concert at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles last year, scanning peoples’ faces through a special kiosk and cross-referencing pictures in a Nashville database with her known stalkers.

At this point, many companies have spoken about facial recognition, but the idea is still up-in-the-air, leaving fans wondering: where and how is this information stored?