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Biotech Medicine Software

NBA Partners With Biometric Screening Company To Allow Full Capacity Arenas Next Season 68

Posted by BeauHD from the progressive-sports-leagues dept.
The NBA expects all arenas to be at full capacity next season, thanks to increased COVID-19 testing and more vaccines being administered. Another key aspect toward that effort is the NBA's new multiyear leaguewide partnership with Clear, a biometric screening company known for its expedited security process at hundreds of airports worldwide. ESPN reports: The partnership makes Clear's COVID-19 health screening technology available to all 30 teams in their NBA arenas, and it's expected to help facilitate more fans returning to games, though it's up to each team how to use the technology. Conversations for a leaguewide partnership began in early September. This is Clear's first leaguewide partnership with a professional sports league, but the company has been working with teams in MLS, MLB, NHL and the NFL. Clear first rolled out this program in a leaguewide format with the NHL's bubble season across two cities in Canada last year.

As it pertains to attendance, fans can download the Clear app and upload an identifying document along with a selfie. To link their COVID-19 test results, fans log into their testing account through the app, and results will be linked to their health pass. Before entering the venue, fans can open the app, verify their identity with another selfie and then answer health survey questions. (There are also expected to be an unspecified number of Clear kiosks where fans receive a temperature check and scan their QR code.) Fans are issued a red or green notification depending on their COVID-related health information. A Clear spokesperson noted that the arenas only receive information about whether a fan has passed the requirements for access and not any private health information from the individual. They said that the Clear program is scalable, and could facilitate thousands of fans entering arenas.
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NBA Partners With Biometric Screening Company To Allow Full Capacity Arenas Next Season More

NBA Partners With Biometric Screening Company To Allow Full Capacity Arenas Next Season

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  • I'll bite (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 )

    Although it appears TO BE A slashvertisement, I'll bite; an industry profitably dependent on the full and historical participance of fans at games errs on the side of full capacity... color me utterly unsurprised.

    • And just how many of those test results they depend on turn out to be false negatives? Because if you have too many false negatives in this type of situation, you're guaranteed to get COVID outbreaks.

  • Abbott's Navica app links to its binaxnow covid test. Same red green functionality... no temperature check theater!

  • Everyone here knows technology gets things wrong from time to time; how are we compensated if they won't let us into the game? And by whom - the team, or Clear?

    • sue them all arena / stadium, team , clear, vaccination agency, league, local government and let the courts short it out!

      • sue them all arena / stadium, team , clear, vaccination agency, league, local government and let the courts short it out!

        Oh yeah. I'm certain that "important" lawsuit will be at the front of the legal line.

        Right after we get done with 4,072,734 lawsuits related to COVID.

        Best of luck to you in 2037 fighting for your 2021 rights to watch a game.

    • Hidden in the fine print in the terms and conditions, I'm sure you will somehow agree to hold all the above blameless should an error (or data breech) occur. Um, thanks but no thanks.

  • Vaccine passport (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fermion ( 181285 ) on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:10PM (#61249170) Homepage Journal
    Except it is a private company that will mine and leak your personal data. Clear tries so hard to recruit travelers. At least with TSA your not giving anyone data they donâ(TM)t already have. The security implications of this makes all online data tracking seems like childâ(TM)s play. And just to watch a game.

    • HIPAA issues and what about the laws? Let's say local governments set rules about what info an 3rd party can ask / do with your Vaccine info.

      Also leagues play games in both USA and Canada. (some times others) That may lead to things at an leaguewide level being very limited at most restricted one.

      • HIPAA does not apply to users - they can share any medical info about themselves that they want. HIPAA does not apply to entities that do not accept payment from the feds unless they are business partners with a health care entity. I do not think I would participate but there are no legal issues that I see.

    • We need a vaccine passport. If we don't have the government supply one, then private companies will. And they will mine (and leak) your data. The government already knows my name and knows my vaccination status (because all vaccinations are reported to the government.) Why not just supply access to that through an API?

      • Because the government doesn't want to create a federal document that can be used to deny service to someone. What if a person can't get the vaccine due to health risks? What if they live in Moosejaw, MN, 200 miles from nowhere and can't find a location to get the vaccine? What if they can't get the vaccine due to religious reasons?

        "Sorry, ma'am, you can't shop for food here. You need a vaccine passport first. The store around the corner will still sell to NonVac people, but their prices are twice as

        • Sure, we should be careful about rolling out a vaccine passport. Early on, there will be people who cannot get a vaccine because of the supply. That number is rapidly decreasing, but those people will have unfairness until then. And it sucks and we should minimize it, but the alternative is being less far to everyone else.

          As to your specific objections:

          What if a person can't get the vaccine due to health risks?

          I imagine a health risk would be noted on the vaccine passport and that person would be allow

        • What if a person can't get the vaccine due to health risks?

          The obvious solution would be to give them a card that says that.

          What if they live in Moosejaw, MN, 200 miles from nowhere and can't find a location to get the vaccine?

          There are vaccination teams that travel to remote locations and set up mobile clinics.

          For instance, Canada made vaccination of remote villages in Yukon and NWT a priority since it is difficult to deal with Covid cases there.

          What if they can't get the vaccine due to religious reasons?

          If your religion requires you to be a disease reservoir, it isn't a very good religion.

    • The spokesperson says that "the arenas only receive information about whether a fan has passed the requirements for access" neglecting of course to mention that Clear will have ALL of your information and will gladly sell it on to another third party. Without serious privacy safeguards in place this should be a non-starter, but the NBA isn't going to lobby on behalf of their fans. The logical recourse is for the fans to simply not turn up.

  • until experts and epidemiologists stop telling me to wear a mask. Around the time Fauci is saying we can mask off safely is around the time I know it's safe.

    Yes, a good vaccine is 90% effective, but if you're exposed enough times you're going to get sick. Roll a d100 1000 times and see how many 1s you get. And even light cases are being linked to odd ball neurological disorders...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by rlwinm ( 6158720 )
      The biggest side effect seems to be TDS. The funny thing is in Florida you would never know there is any of this COVID stuff. And we're not talking the sparse northern parts, we're talking dense urban areas.

      • The funny thing is in Florida you would never know there is any of this COVID stuff.

        If you think underreporting of medical information is funny, you and Florida deserve one another. I hope you are very happy together.

      • I also didn't mention the study where 33% of people who had COVID had mental or neurological issues after 6 months. My fears are well founded. I'm not just fear mongering, I'm saying that our gov't and society needs to do more.

        What I like is you automatically assumed that the right wing opposes doing more to contain and control the virus... because they do. The right wing can't govern. Their ideas have been shown repeatedly not to work. Whether it's trickle down economics never trickling down or small g

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      You can climb out from under your bed now. Covid19 is not that threatening unless you have comorbidities.

      Here's some reading material that might ease the transition
      https://twitter.com/gummibear7... [twitter.com]\

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Sad that this was modded troll.

      I'll keep wearing masks even after being vaccinated. Would be nice if that became fairly normal like it is in some countries. Does wonders to thwart facial recognition.

      I won't be doing risky stuff until the pandemic has died right down. Depending on which vaccine I get it will be between about 70% and 90% effective, and those odds aren't good enough for me to take risks just for some entertainment. I can watch sports on TV and watch movies at home.

  • How things have changed (Score:4, Funny)

    by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:24PM (#61249196)

    1984 - "Totally creepy. You'll get my private information over my dead body."

    2021 - "All I have to do to go to a sporting event again is give you my location and biometric information so you can know where I am, and what I look like so you can recognize me with a camera? Sounds like a great featiure! I hope that they can start tracking everyone around me too so I can avoid the sick people."

    • What if I don't have a smartphone?

      • What if I don't have a smartphone?

        This is becoming harder and harder to argue in favor of this defense anymore. You aren't just an outlier. You are becoming the outlier. At some point, this will probably bring even more unwanted attention than the alternative.

  • Last time I was at a concert, cell phone service was garbage.

  • "Full capacity", "NBA", *chuckles*.

    Maybe two years ago, but they just alienated half of their audience with political messages. Unless they make the buildings smaller with less seats, they're never going to get back to their original in seat numbers if tv viewership is any indication.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      Maybe two years ago, but they just alienated half of their audience with political messages.

      No, they really didn't. And I'm bad at math, but you're worse.

      The fanbase of literally every NBA team leans left and there are almost as many undeclared fans as there are right-wingers. The simple fact is that over 2/3 of NBA fans are NOT republicans. When you add to that the fact that 4 in 10 republicans do not oppose making voting easier [wkyc.com] it becomes even more obvious that you are wrong. Republican NBA fans are in the minority, and only a small majority of them are even opposed to easier voting access. If w

  • By December the disease will be essentially defunct. There will be nobody to spread the disease. Everybody will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated; there will be no public sympathy for any unvaccinated person who gets COVID.

    • there will be no public sympathy for any unvaccinated person who gets COVID.

      Really?

      Millions get a flu vaccine every year. Some of them still die from the flu.

      If we think life is cruel now, I really don't want to deal with a post-COVID society full of unsympathetic ignorant assholes who don't actually know how vaccinations work.

      • If we think life is cruel now, I really don't want to deal with a post-COVID society full of unsympathetic ignorant assholes who don't actually know how vaccinations work.

        Either kill yourself now or stop with the tired hyperbole. Either way the quality of your output will improve. The vast majority of people are already unsympathetic ignorant assholes who don't actually know how vaccinations work.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

        > Millions get a flu vaccine every year. Some of them still die from the flu.

        The one thing COVID did kill was the flu. Remember? There are no deaths from the flu anymore...

  • I am vaccinated, but if a business requires a vaccine passport, I will be boycotting that business. What is the actual point of this privacy invasion? Once everyone who chooses to be vaccinated has been vaccinated, why even do this? Those who choose not to be vaccinated are presumptively taking the larger risk, and those of us who are vaccinated are presumptively better protected. Vaccine Passports are nothing but big tech companies looking for a new way to make money based off of irrational fear.

    • From the perspective of the individual, a vaccine passport benefits the immunocompromised and small percentage for who the vaccine is ineffective. If I'm taking a medication that suppresses my immune system or otherwise makes a covid vaccine ineffective, I'd sure like some guarantee that other patrons of a restaurant or sporting event are vaccinated if they can be.

      There's also a PR angle. It's in the interest of the business to keep their patrons safe, even if the patrons themselves don't seem to care muc

      • I believe that large interests, such as tech companies, are looking for one more way to track people. Most businesses will not require this, so I guess that the only place you may be safer will be at NBA games and perhaps concerts sponsored by Ticketmaster. IBM is one of the companies trying to sell this nonsense, they were early to the game of tracking people when they assisted the German government back in the 1930s. I feel for people with conditions like what you have, but I still cannot support this.

        • Godwin'd

          I think there are two, mostly separate, items under consideration here -

          1. 1) Private, non-HIPAA-covered entities collecting health/biometric data
          2. 2) Requiring proof of vaccination to participate in some sort of event (watching a basketball game, going to a concert, eating at a restaurant, going to school)

          I share some of your concerns with the former, but on its own that doesn't seem like a reason to reject the latter.

          • I don't think it will be required for children for school. We already have in-school learning at least part time in San Diego but children aren't even available for the vaccination. Can they even take it? Probably but it definitely doesn't seem like it's a priority.

            Just the other day they said children are now safe with half the social distance. Covid apparently just doesn't affect them as much and adults can now pretty much get signed up for the vaccine whenever they want at this point.

            I could see ticketba

    • What is the actual point of this privacy invasion?

      The actual point is to keep people who are unvaccinated from coming into the business, because they don't want them there. And that's their right.

      Once everyone who chooses to be vaccinated has been vaccinated, why even do this?

      You're choosing whether or not to be vaccinated, and they're choosing whether or not to let them into their business. It's called choice, and it's supposedly one of the basic tenets of Americanism. Do you or don't you believe in free will? And for other people, not just for you.

  • I'm gonna keep reading "NSA"... and keep the slave labor thing, that is their actual business, in mind.

  • Next season? After COVID is long gone and most people are vaccinated? When it will be a waste of time and money?

    It's their time and their money, so they can waste them if they want, but that won't make it any less stupid.

  • This has got to be the dumbest security design ever:

    To link their COVID-19 test results, fans log into their testing account through the app

    That is so monumentally stupid that I can't understand how it's allowed. Does HIPAA have no security requirements at all? Maybe HIPAA needs to be amended.

    If they want to do this in a sane fashion, there would be a system where users create a one-time code with their records provider indicating which data can be shared, and then Clear contacts the provider with the code after the user supplies it.

    At no point should credentials ever be supplied directly. Bre

  • the same people calling everyone Nazis are in favour of crap like this.

    Papers please?

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