FSC, Performers Puzzled by Talent Testing's New Medical Questionnaire, TTS Responds (XBIZ)

Read the full article by Gustavo Turner at XBIZ.com

NORTHRIDGE, Cal. — The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), the trade organization that developed and administers the PASS program, has requested an explanation from Talent Testing Service (TTS), one of the drawing facility networks that works with PASS, about a new Medical History Questionnaire that TTS introduced last month.

The FSC is also looking to clarify the purpose of a retinal scan that TTS has been performing. This biometric technique, a form of “digital fingerprinting,” has been criticized by privacy advocates and has already prompted state legislation in Washington, Texas and Illinois to regulate its implementation.

Several performers, both privately and via social media, expressed concern over the weekend about the new Medical History Questionnaire (MHQ) and the retinal scan. They also contacted the FSC with questions about the implementation of these protocols at TTS’s popular Northridge facility, in California’s San Fernando Valley, and about the collection and storage of the data by the Florida-based company.

Update (3/27/19, 3:30 p.m.): XBIZ was contacted today by Talent Testing Service’s President Sixto Pacheco who explained that the machines used by TTS for eye scans actually perform iris scans and not retinal scans. Yesterday Pacheco mistook the kind of scans we were asking him about and seemed to confirm what the TTS employee had initially told Jessica Drake about “retinal scans.”