from Disguise the safety of the venue and kick out the enemy Department
Private companies can legally declare that they have the right to refuse service to anyone (with very few restrictions under the law, mainly on discrimination against protected classes) . The application of facial recognition technology makes it much easier. Instead of posting pictures and bad checks on the back wall to signal unwelcome employees, companies can take advantage of technology companies and databases of unknown origin to make these calls.
MSG Entertainment, which operates New York’s Madison Square Garden and other venues, has opted to let facial recognition technology do the job of doormen. Leaving aside (for the sake of discussion) the fact that the technology tends to expose minorities and women to a higher rate of false positives/negatives, a recent event at a venue owned by MSG Entertainment showed that certain It suggests that it is not wise to do so. You can do it.
For example, in this little debacle, a mother and her Girl Scout daughter were pulled apart when they tried to attend a show at Radio City Music Hall.
Kelly Conlon and her daughter came to New York City the weekend after Thanksgiving as part of a Girl Scouts field trip to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular show. Her daughter, other members of the Girl Scout Troop, and their mother were able to enjoy the show, but Conlon was not allowed to do so.
Because Conlon is more than just a mother to Madison Square Garden Entertainment. Her guards approached her as soon as he entered the lobby, so they identified her and had her sights set.
Conlon was approached by a security guard who said a facial recognition system had flagged her. They demanded her ID and kicked her out of her venue, with no explanation given, but Kelly Conlon has reason to believe her exit was personal.
“They knew my name before I spoke. They knew the company I was associated with before I told them. And they knew I was there. told me I wasn’t allowed to,” Conlon said..
Conlon is an associate at the New Jersey-based law firm Davis, Saperstein and Solomon and has been involved for many years in personal injury lawsuits against restaurant establishments now owned by MSG Entertainment.
Did Conlon read too much into this? If this is an isolated incident, the answer might be “maybe”. But Conlon isn’t the only attorney working for a company involved in a lawsuit against MSG.
A Long Island attorney says he was kicked out of a Knicks game after being alerted by facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden. This is the same system the company used to fire another attorney from the Rockets show.
Alexis Magiano, a 28-year-old lawyer, said: “I was upset. I had been planning all night and it didn’t work. I said, ‘This is ridiculous.’ ‘ said.
Mr. Magjano’s law firm has a pending lawsuit over matters unrelated to Madison Square Garden Entertainment, but when he was stopped on an escalator on Nov. 5, he and his friends were in a game against the Celtics. He said he was on his way.
Majano works for the law firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz. The company recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a person who fell from a Madison Square Garden skybox while attending a concert. just one of
These bans have now led to lawsuits. And with those lawsuits targeting bans dating back to this summer, attorneys have begun noticing a strange pattern of bans targeting members of law firms involved in lawsuits targeting MSG Entertainment. rice field.
Private companies retain the right to refuse service to anyone for nearly any reason, but the issue at stake, bordering on litigation, is not the same as denying service, especially because evictions have occurred. Whether it is a legal reason for refusal. rear MSG Entertainment has already opted to sell tickets and will let you out when you arrive to redeem your purchases.
The optics are terrible, legal or not. It doesn’t look like a problem to someone running a company.
Its CEO, James L. Dolan, is a billionaire who has run an empire with autocratic flair, and his firm this summer not only has lawyers representing those who have filed lawsuits, They also imposed a ban on all lawyers in their firm. The company says that “litigation creates an inherently hostile environment,” so with the help of computer software that can use algorithms to identify hundreds of lawyers from their website’s profile pictures, We are strengthening our list. match.
It’s a flea market. There is no constitutionally guaranteed right to attend an event. Private companies often have a choice of who they do business with. But introducing unproven technology with a proven track record of being too wrong often leaves people at the mercy of both billionaires and the methods they choose to increase their emissions efficiency. If MSG is concerned that lawyers may be trying to gain an advantage by attending events and simply conducting scrutiny, it should be possible to find court-based solutions that serve this purpose. is.
This looks bad for MSG, even if it’s perfectly legal. This indicates a lack of confidence in defending these lawsuits. It also shows that the facial recognition tech system is not meant to ensure public safety, but rather allows MSG Entertainment to deny entry to anyone it deems an enemy. of companies will do the same. Silence the critics by simply refusing to enter.
And it’s a tactic that’s almost guaranteed to at least encourage state governments, either through court decisions or legislation, to issue orders that limit the private rights of corporations. management team. And until all is resolved, the company can continue to punish opponents it sees as having committed the crime of providing legal services to people they feel have been wronged by MSG Entertainment. If MSG wants to prove their legitimacy, let them do so in court. Deploying crude techniques to blacklist people who have never violated venue rules is a terrible way to handle a “problem” that seems to exist only in the heads of MSG owners. It’s a way.
filed under: emission, facial recognition, james dolan, lawyer, msg
Company: msg, msg Entertainment