Key Takeaways
- The California Privacy Protection Agency fined PlayOn Sports $1.1 million for privacy violations tied to its GoFan digital ticketing platform, which has sold over 30 million tickets to high school events nationwide
- This is the first CCPA enforcement action specifically targeting privacy practices involving students and schools
- GoFan required users to click “Agree” to tracking before accessing tickets to events like football games, school plays and prom, with no option to opt out
- The company’s privacy policy falsely stated it did not sell users’ personal information
- Referring users to third-party opt-out tools does not satisfy California’s requirement that businesses offer at least two ways to opt out
A Privacy Enforcement First for Youth Sports
On March 3, 2026, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) announced a $1.1 million fine against PlayOn Sports, the company behind GoFan, a digital ticketing platform widely used in school athletics. PlayOn has sold more than 30 million tickets to high school events nationwide and holds contracts with approximately 1,400 schools in California.
The CPPA’s order, dated February 27, cited repeated violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act during 2023 and 2024 related to online tracking technologies and targeted advertising practices affecting students, parents and school communities. It marked the first time the agency brought an enforcement action specifically addressing privacy violations in the student and school context.
“Students trying to go to prom or a high school football game shouldn’t have to leave their privacy rights at the door,” said Michael Macko, the CPPA’s head of enforcement.
For the broader youth sports technology ecosystem, the case offers a clear set of lessons on where regulators are drawing the line.
Lesson 1: Student Data Carries Extra Regulatory Weight
The CPPA’s announcement made clear that students are considered a uniquely vulnerable population. The agency pointed to specific risks around profiling students for targeted advertising, including the creation of long-term behavioral inferences and exposure to manipulative content.
The students affected were not using some obscure app. They were buying tickets to football games, school plays and senior prom. The CCPA is not a student-specific privacy law, but the CPPA applied it aggressively here because the data practices disproportionately affected minors and school communities. Any platform operating in the youth sports space that collects data from young users or their families should expect similar scrutiny going forward.
Lesson 2: You Cannot Outsource Your Opt-Out Obligations
One of the most significant findings in the case involved how PlayOn Sports handled opt-out rights. Rather than building its own opt-out controls, the company directed users to third-party tools run by industry groups like the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance.
The CPPA ruled that this approach did not meet statutory requirements. California law requires companies to offer at least two ways for consumers to opt out of having their information sold. Businesses that sell or share personal information for targeted advertising must provide their own accessible opt-out mechanisms on their own digital properties. Pointing users elsewhere is not enough.
For youth sports platforms relying on similar industry frameworks to check the compliance box, this is the takeaway that demands the most immediate attention.
Lesson 3: Opt-Out Preference Signals Are Not Optional
Beyond the opt-out mechanism itself, the CPPA found that PlayOn Sports failed to detect and honor opt-out preference signals sent by consumers’ browsers or devices. California law requires businesses to recognize these automated signals, and the agency treated the failure to do so as an independent violation.
The technical implementation matters here. Platforms need to confirm that their systems can consistently detect and process these signals across web and mobile environments.
Lesson 4: “Agree to Track” Models Are a Compliance Risk
The CPPA zeroed in on GoFan’s mobile experience, where users were required to click “Agree” to tracking technologies before they could redeem digital tickets they had already purchased. There was no option to opt out. As Macko put it, “You couldn’t attend these events without showing your ticket, and you couldn’t show your ticket without being tracked for advertising.”
The agency found that this design eliminated meaningful consumer choice and conflicted with the CCPA’s opt-out framework. Any platform that gates access behind a tracking consent wall should revisit that approach.
Lesson 5: Your Privacy Policy Has to Be Accurate
The CPPA’s order also cited GoFan for maintaining a privacy policy on its website that falsely stated the company did not sell users’ personal information. The policy was not updated annually and did not inform users about their right to opt out of commercialized data collection, both independent violations of state law.
This is a straightforward compliance gap that any youth sports platform can audit today. If your platform shares data with advertising partners, your privacy policy needs to say so clearly, and it needs to be kept current.
What This Means for Youth Sports Technology
The GoFan case is not an outlier. It fits within a broader pattern of increased regulatory focus on how digital platforms handle data tied to minors and school communities. The CPPA began investigating PlayOn in 2024 and received user complaints during the course of its review.
PlayOn said in a statement that it “takes the privacy and safety of the students and school communities we serve very seriously” and that the matters addressed in the order have been fully resolved as of December 2024.
For youth sports technology companies, the lessons are concrete. Build your own opt-out controls. Honor automated opt-out signals. Do not gate access to paid services behind tracking consent. Keep your privacy policy accurate and up to date. And recognize that operating in the youth sports space means operating under a higher level of scrutiny when it comes to data practices involving young people and their families.
The $1.1 million fine is significant, but the operational changes required may carry a larger long-term cost for any company that has not already addressed these issues.
Source: WilmerHale via JD Supra, Ali Jessani and Kirk Nahra, March 20, 2026
Source: The Guardian, March 4, 2026
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