NEW YORK – Facial recognition technology is a potentially controversial topic.
For this reason, the New York City Council, along with the council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, will hold a hearing Friday on the use of facial recognition technology by New York businesses, including places entertainment and retail establishments.
The committee seeks to determine how companies are using facial recognition technology, as well as the benefits and risks the technology presents. In addition, the Committee will consider legislation that would disclose service fees associated with tickets to entertainment events in New York.
Members will discuss the use of facial recognition in business and entertainment venues. The hearing comes as Madison Square Garden receives criticism for its use of technology.
One of the cases occurred at Radio City Music Hall in late 2022, in which the mother of a Girl Scout. Kelly Conlon and her daughter arrived in New York the weekend after Thanksgiving 2022 as part of a tour of Girl Scouts at Radio City Music Hall to see the show Christmas show. But while his daughter, other Girl Scout members and their mothers went to enjoy the show, Conlon was not allowed to. It is because for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Conlon is not just any mom. They identified her using facial recognition technology.
“I think it was pretty simultaneous for me, going through the metal detector, which I heard over an intercom or speakerphone,” he told our sister network. NBC New York. “I heard them say woman with long black hair and a gray scarf.”
She said she was asked for her name and to show identification. “I think they said our recognition flagged you,” Conlon said.
A sign indicates that facial recognition is used as a security measure to keep customers and employees safe. Conlon says she wasn’t a threat, but the guards kicked her out saying they knew she was a lawyer.
“They knew my name before I told them. They knew what company I was associated with before I told them. And they told me I wasn’t allowed to be there,” Conlon said.
Conlon is a partner at the New Jersey-based law firm Davis, Saperstein & Solomon, which has been involved for years in personal injury litigation against a restaurant now under the MSG Entertainment umbrella.
“I don’t practice in New York. I’m not an attorney working on a case against MSG,” Conlon said.
But MSG said she was nonetheless banned from the site, along with other lawyers from that firm and others.
In this case, an MSG spokesperson reiterated in a statement that security is their top priority and that facial recognition is just one of the methods they use. MSG Entertainment also said it believes its policy complies with all applicable laws, including the New York State Alcoholic Beverage Authority.