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HYBE faces the music over face-scanning entry system

Published: 25 Dec. 2024, 14:53

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Face Pass, developed in collaboration with the digital wallet app Toss and Interpark Triple, the operator of InterPark Ticket, allows fans to scan their faces to enter a venue instead of presenting their physical tickets or identification cards for verification if they choose to scan and upload their biometric data to Toss's server ahead of the day of the event. [HYBE, TOSS]

HYBE announced on Monday that it is introducing new face-scanning technology designed to "bring convenience" to K-pop fans attending concerts, ironically setting off cybersecurity concerns with complaints about the collection of biometric data.

The controversy began mounting when HYBE said that the new face identification system will be implemented for boy band TWS's fan meet and greet in February.

Face Pass, developed in collaboration with the digital wallet app Toss and InterPark Triple, the operator of InterPark Ticket, allows fans to scan their faces to enter a venue instead of presenting physical tickets or identification cards for verification if they choose to scan and upload their biometric data to Toss's server before the day of the event.

The biometric data will be encrypted and saved on the server. At the concert venue, fans will then scan their faces with cameras installed at the gates to enter.

While Toss assured fans of the service’s security, explaining that the “saved face data will be encrypted and safely stored at a separate [Toss] server,” fans have still raised concerns about the system.

“They want my face registered on Toss’s server? Why do you even need my personal information when I just want to go to a concert?” read a post uploaded on X on Monday, shortly after HYBE’s announcement, that received 1.1 million views and 21,000 reposts as of Wednesday.

“Why are companies collecting our biometric data so openly?” said another X post with 500,000 views.

HYBE and Toss explained that Face Pass is “strictly optional,” and that fans are welcome to enter concerts like they did before — with tickets and IDs.

“Fans will be able to withdraw from the [Face Pass] agreement at any time and remove the saved biometric data,” Toss told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Wednesday.

The app's terms and conditions state that facial data will be stored for one year even after the user terminates the agreement, and such data can be stored for up to 10 years if “malicious attempts, including the use of masks or altered videos,” are detected.

The company also told the Korea JoongAng Daily that Face Pass and its encrypted biometric data “will only be used for [concert] admissions using face scanning” and is “legally not allowed to be used for any other purposes without consent from the user.”

HYBE explained that the introduction of Face Pass was a way to increase “efficiency” and “audience accessibility,” and will expand the service in the future for “fans all over the world.”

Rookie boy band TWS’s “2025 TWS 1st Fanmeeting ’42:Club’ in Seoul” will be held on Feb. 14, 15 and 16 at the Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Songpa District, southern Seoul, with ticket sales starting Jan. 10 for fan club members and on Jan. 13 for nonmembers.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]