Facial Recognition at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden has been using facial recognition technology to screen all visitors, including flagging activists who oppose such surveillance systems. The system was notably disabled for Taylor Swift's wedding at the venue, highlighting a growing disparity where wealthy individuals can opt out of surveillance while the general public cannot.

AI summary · key takeaways

by callmor.ai

• MSG's facial recognition system actively flags and alerts security about activists who oppose facial recognition technology, raising ethical concerns about targeting critics • The system was disabled for Taylor Swift's wedding, demonstrating that surveillance can be selectively applied based on client status and payment • This case exemplifies a two-tiered privacy system where wealthy individuals can purchase privacy protections while ordinary citizens face mandatory surveillance • The incident reveals how corporate venues are deploying facial recognition without transparent policies about who gets exempted from monitoring • Enterprise organizations must consider the reputational and ethical risks of implementing surveillance technologies that can be selectively enforced

Last month, the story broke (alternate link ) that Madison Square Garden uses facial recognition software on everyone entering the facility, and—among other groups—flags activists that oppose using facial recognition. Turns out that the system was shut off for Taylor Swift’s wedding. Evan Greer—one of the people that MSG alerts on— comments : Ironically, Swift herself has reportedly used facial recognition at her own concerts to identify stalkers.

This “privacy for me, surveillance for thee” attitude feels like a perfect encapsulation of the future we’re already living in: one where wealthy elites can afford privacy, while the rest of us are forced to live in a corporate surveillance panopticon. Whatever privacy measures Swift had in place for the wedding seems to have worked. No photos have leaked online.

Originally published at schneier.com

#Corporate-Ethics #Cryptography #Cybersecurity #Facial-Recognition #Policy #Privacy #Surveillance

Facial Recognition at Madison Square Garden

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