New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the surveillance technology used by the owner of Madison Square Garden should not be permitted, weighing in on a controversy that has drawn attention to how one of the city's largest entertainment venues tracks visitors. In an interview with Wired on Tuesday, Mamdani said such technologies reflect much of what is wrong in the country today.
Mamdani pointed to two pieces of local legislation introduced by City Council member Shahana Hanif that would ban the collection of biometric data, including through facial recognition, in public places across the city. He described the draft legislation as an important response to the issue. The proposals would apply to public spaces in New York City, where businesses have been required since 2021 to disclose when they collect biometric data from visitors.
The mayor's comments follow a series of Wired reports on how Madison Square Garden's owner, James Dolan, uses surveillance cameras and face-scanning technology to track people inside and outside its venues. One report said Dolan's company maintains a database that marks some visitors, including celebrity performers, as LGBTQIA, for reasons that were not made clear. Dolan subsequently sued Wired over its reporting.
The scrutiny extends beyond the arena itself. In 2021, a woman was banned from Radio City, another venue owned by Dolan, after facial recognition systems identified her as an attorney at a law firm that was suing Dolan's company even though she was not involved in the litigation.
Madison Square Garden spokesperson Mikyl Cordova told TechCrunch that Wired's reporting is inaccurate and false and that MSG is pursuing legal remedies. Cordova did not provide evidence for the claim.
The debate touches on a growing policy question for US venues and businesses that deploy facial recognition and other biometric tools: how much disclosure and consent visitors should receive before their faces and other identifying characteristics are collected. New York City's existing disclosure requirement, in place since 2021, has not settled the dispute over whether such collection should be allowed at all.
More cybersecurity news from TechManNews.
