Queues at sports events can be very long, even at large venues with many entrance gates. To speed things up, Geelong Football Club recently introduced an “express lane” option for club members. Instead of scanning tickets on their phone, members can opt in to facial authentication to enter the club’s home venue, GMHBA Stadium. They upload a selfie to their account, and the technology can then verify them at the entrance. Other AFL clubs are reportedly in discussion with the US-based facial authentication technology provider, Wicket. That means more sports fans may soon need to decide whether this technology is for them. It’s not the first time facial authentication has been offered at Australian sports venues. Fans at this year’s Australian Open could register with Wicket for faster entry. Having your face recognised to “skip the queue and get to your seat sooner” promises convenience. But when consumers provide consent for these technologies to record their facial data, they must fully know what they’re consenting to. Facial recognition is becoming common Facial recognition technologies are becoming increasingly common in Australia. They’ve been used in retail settings to track shoppers, and by police in Western Australia to spot people of interest in crowded places. Facial authentication is a type of facial recognition that relies on the individual providing a selfie to confirm their identity, rather than having their face scanned in a public place. But alongside expanded use come growing concerns about privacy and consent. Under Australian privacy law, facial images and other biometric information are classified as “sensitive information”, which means informed consent is generally required for their collection. In 2024, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner found Bunnings breached privacy law because it failed to get informed consent from its customers to collect facial data in store. If