In latest months, Madison Square Garden and its affiliated venues have used facial recognition know-how to take away a number of attorneys from the premises as a result of they’re employed by corporations in energetic litigation in opposition to MSG. In an announcement to Rolling Stone, a rep for Madison Square Garden Entertainment confirmed that in latest months the corporate adopted a coverage banning their authorized adversaries from their venues: “MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys from firms pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment.”
The use of facial recognition know-how at live shows, sporting occasions, and different giant public gatherings has been an ethically thorny and controversial topic in recent times. Taylor Swift used it throughout her 2018 stadium tour to guard herself from stalkers, whereas plenty of main festivals together with Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits publicly opted out of utilizing the tech in 2019, citing privateness issues.
The attorneys ejected by MSG embody Barbara Hart, an worker of Grant & Eisenhofer (who was escorted out of a Brandi Carlile live performance along with her husband) and Kelly Conlon, an affiliate at Davis, Saperstein, and Solomon (who was faraway from a Radio City Rockettes present at Radio City Music Hall this week as her daughter and the remainder of her Girl Scout troop have been ushered in). Hart’s agency is combatting MSG Entertainment in a Delaware class-action swimsuit, however Hart will not be concerned within the litigation. Nor is Conlon concerned in her agency’s motion in opposition to MSG. The new apply from MSG has led to a category motion lawsuit on behalf of a number of lawfirms, however up to now courts have dominated in favor of MSG with appeals pending.
Evan Greer, director of the group Fight For The Future, which opposes using biometric safety know-how, informed Rolling Stone, “This is the perfect example to show that these tools can be used in ways that are really alarming. In some ways, this is kind of an innocuous case — it’s not like [Conlon] was arrested. But the reality is that this was a corporation with what amounts to a petty grievance, using a deeply invasive surveillance apparatus in a way that left a mom sitting outside while her kid went into a concert.”