Ticketmaster is one of the largest ticket sales and distribution companies in the world. They sell tickets for concerts, sports events, theater shows and more. With millions of customers worldwide, Ticketmaster handles a huge volume of account registrations and deletions.
So how long does it actually take for Ticketmaster to fully delete your account after you request it? Let’s take a closer look.
The account deletion process
When you request to delete your Ticketmaster account, it does not get wiped from their systems instantly. There is a bit of a process involved for them to fully deactivate and remove all of your data. Here are the basic steps:
- You submit a request to delete your Ticketmaster account.
- Ticketmaster deactivates your account, which removes your ability to log in or access your account.
- Over the next 90 days, Ticketmaster takes steps to fully delete your data from their active systems.
- After 90 days, your account and data should be completely removed from Ticketmaster’s databases and backups.
So in summary, the account deactivation happens very quickly, within 24 hours. But the full deletion process takes approximately 90 days. This is in line with Ticketmaster’s privacy policy and terms of use related to account deletion.
Why 90 days for full deletion?
You may be wondering, why does it take Ticketmaster up to 90 days to fully delete an account after it has been deactivated? There are a few reasons for this.
- Scale of data – With over 60 million active users, Ticketmaster has enormous amounts of data to manage. Deleting an account requires systematically removing data from many databases and backups across their complex systems.
- Legal obligations – Ticketmaster may be legally required to retain some transactional data for taxation, accounting or regulatory purposes before deleting it. The 90 day window gives them time to meet any compliance requirements.
- Backups and caches – Data on large scale systems is routinely backed up and cached in multiple places. The 90 days allows Ticketmaster to delete your data from all locations.
- Queue of deletions – With many account deletion requests coming in daily, Ticketmaster has to work through a queue to process each one systematically while also managing live systems.
In short, at Ticketmaster’s massive scale, account deletion is a complex technical process that cannot happen instantly in order to protect data integrity across interconnected systems.
What data gets deleted
When you request account deletion, what types of data can you expect Ticketmaster to remove after 90 days? Here are some of the main things that would be deleted:
- Your name, email, phone number, physical address and any other personal info
- Your Ticketmaster account profile information
- Order history and details of any ticket purchases
- Payment information like credit card numbers
- Records of service interactions and support requests
- Behavioural data like browsing history, clicks, etc.
In most cases, Ticketmaster will attempt to delete all traces of your personal data from their systems within the 90 day deletion process. However, they may retain some aggregated or de-identified data for analytics after removing links to your identity.
Data that may remain
According to their privacy policy, Ticketmaster does note some cases where your data may continue to reside in their systems after account deletion. This includes:
- When data must be retained for legal compliance reasons
- Information contained in backups or archives that become extremely difficult to search through
- Data that has been de-identified or aggregated in ways that make it anonymous
Rest assured that Ticketmaster will make their best effort to remove all personal links to your data within their active databases. But some data remnants may persist in archived backups or other systems after 90 days.
How to request account deletion
If you wish to delete your Ticketmaster account, here is how you go about it:
- Log into your Ticketmaster account
- Go to My Account and select “Cancel Account”
- Follow the prompts to permanently delete your account
- You will receive a confirmation email when your account deletion is processed
Note that if you have any active tickets or unsettled orders, you will have to wait until those are completed before being able to delete your Ticketmaster account fully.
Other data deletion options
If you don’t want to fully delete your Ticketmaster account but wish to remove some data, you do have options:
- Delete order history – You can selectively delete your order history while keeping your Ticketmaster account open.
- Remove payment info – Stored payment methods can be deleted individually without closing your account.
- Opt-out preferences – You can opt-out of email subscriptions, data sharing, personalized ads, etc.
Full account deletion should only be done if you have no further use for your Ticketmaster services. Otherwise, selective data removal may be better.
What happens if you re-open an account
If you delete your Ticketmaster account and then later decide to open a new one, it will essentially be treated as a brand new account:
- You have to create a new username and password
- Previous order history will not be linked or accessible
- You’ll have to re-enter payment methods
- Your new account is not associated with your old deleted account
So in effect, it’s the same as starting over from scratch. Re-opening an account does not restore or reactivate any previously deleted information.
Conclusion
In summary, here are some key points on Ticketmaster’s account deletion process:
- Your account is deactivated within 24 hours of a deletion request
- It takes approximately 90 days for Ticketmaster to fully delete all personal data related to the account
- Some legal, archived or aggregated data may persist over time
- You can log in and request permanent account deletion at any time
- Creating a new account after deleting does not restore your old data
Overall, Ticketmaster aims to remove all individual identifying information within 90 days after an account is closed. However, remnants of your data may still exist in backups, archives and de-identified records. The full deletion process allows Ticketmaster to methodically remove your personal data while maintaining legal and data integrity standards.
Ticketmaster’s account deletion policies are in line with many other large consumer online services. The 90 day window balanced their data compliance needs with users’ privacy expectations. Understanding Ticketmaster’s account deletion process allows you to better manage your personal data.
Whether you choose to delete your Ticketmaster account or not, being informed on how account closure works provides useful insight as a consumer.
Account Deletion Step | Timeline |
---|---|
Request account deletion | Instantly initiated |
Account deactivation | Within 24 hours |
Personal data deletion | Up to 90 days |
Backup and archived data removal | Beyond 90 days |
This table summarizes the key stages and timeframes for Ticketmaster deleting an account after you request closure. The full process can take over 90 days for all systems to be cleansed of your personal data.
When can you expect permanent account deletion?
To recap, here is a breakdown of when you can expect full and permanent deletion of your Ticketmaster account after requesting closure:
- Immediately – Account is deactivated and inaccessible to you
- Within 1 day – Profile, data, history is disabled
- Within 90 days – Personal info removed from databases
- After 90+ days – Data cleansed from backups and archives
While most personal data deletion occurs within the first 90 days, expect some data remnants to persist in backups or archives long term.
What kind of support does Ticketmaster provide?
If you have any issues or questions about deleting your Ticketmaster account, you have a few options for support:
- Help Center – Ticketmaster has an extensive online help center with FAQs, guides and resources for managing your account.
- Email Support – You can email Ticketmaster’s customer service team for account management assistance.
- Phone Support – For urgent issues, you can call Ticketmaster’s helpline. Wait times may be long.
- Live Chat – Some account pages offer live chat access to a support representative.
Be sure to check Ticketmaster’s help center first before reaching out to a live agent for faster responses to common account management questions.
Is Ticketmaster account deletion permanent?
Yes, when you request to delete your Ticketmaster account, it is designed to be permanent account closure, not just deactivation. However, there are a couple caveats:
- Data remnants may persist in archives
- You can open a brand new account at any time
While traces of your data may exist in backups, re-creating an account starts you fresh. Overall, Ticketmaster intends account deletion to be permanent, not temporary.
Can you retrieve a deleted Ticketmaster account?
No, if you delete your Ticketmaster account, it cannot be retrieved or reactivated. The deletion is permanent. Some key points:
- All personal account data is removed
- Order history, payment info etc. is all deleted
- You cannot log back into a deleted account
- There is no way to recover or restore a deleted Ticketmaster account
The only option is to create a brand new account. So be 100% sure before deleting your Ticketmaster account, as there is no going back!