Facial Recognition at Madison Square Garden Switched Off for Taylor Swift's Wedding

A month ago it came to light that Madison Square Garden applies facial recognition to everyone who enters the building. Among other categories, the system specifically flags activists who campaign against the technology itself — a kind of blacklist for those who disagree with the arena's methods.

As it turns out, for one event the system was in fact taken offline: for the duration of Taylor Swift's wedding, the biometric checks at the entrance were shut down.

“Privacy for the Chosen Few”

One of the people MSG regularly flags with its system — activist Evan Greer — pointed out the irony of the situation. According to Greer, Swift herself has reportedly used facial recognition at her own concerts to spot stalkers in the crowd.

Greer sums up the resulting principle succinctly: “privacy for me, surveillance for everyone else.” In it he sees an exact snapshot of the future we are already living in: the wealthy upper crust can afford the inviolability of private life, while everyone else is left to play the part of inhabitants of a corporate panopticon.

There was no need to look far for an example. Whatever protective measures were put in place around the wedding, they apparently worked: not a single photograph of the celebration ever leaked online. The technology that at other times is aimed at unwelcome guests turned out, at the right moment, to be the very instrument that secured the star the very privacy denied to ordinary visitors to the arena.

Source: Schneier on Security