NEW YORK (PIX11) — The use of facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden has become a perplexing topic among sports fans.
“They can probably catch worse people. On the flip side, what else are they using the image for?” Sports fan Rich said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and MSG Entertainment disagree over the company’s controversial use of technology to bar certain customers from venues.
On Wednesday, James sent a letter to MSG Entertainment. Those with tickets to the event need not worry that they may be unjustly denied entry based on their appearance, and we are urging MSG Entertainment to rescind this policy.
MSG claimed it used facial recognition technology to keep lawyers with paid tickets away from MSG.
However, an MSG spokesperson told PIX11 News:
“We are only excluding a small percentage of attorneys in litigation. Our policy does not apply to attorneys representing plaintiffs who allege sexual harassment or employment discrimination.”
New York State Senator Brad Hoilman said efforts were underway to close loopholes he said MSG was exploiting.
“Civil rights law protects individuals from being denied access to public facilities, and we want to close that loophole. said.
Privacy advocates say the technology’s shortcomings are amplified by its tendency to misidentify certain demographic groups.
“The problem with facial recognition is that it is biased and error-prone. We know the technology is wrong, often for Black and Latino people,” said one advocate. rice field.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has found that more than 10 federal agencies already have access to facial recognition across the country. However, a 2019 federal study found that “among US-developed algorithms, her one-to-one matching of Asian, African American, and Native groups had similarly high false-positive rates.” was.”
Civil rights attorney Andrew Reeve said even if MSG were blocked from using the technology, other private companies could still get the go-ahead.
“Unquestionably, private companies can use facial recognition technology to ban people,” said Lieb. “There is no law to stop them from doing that. Our anti-discrimination laws are based on demographics. I can kick you out.”