The Madison Square Gardens' facial recognition program is now being inestigated by the NYAG!

[thewayne]

The New York State Attorney General is investigating that the practice of MSG is discriminatory, especially with the notorious false rate of positives vs minorities and women.

MSG replies 'Nuh uh.' Their main rebuttle is that such a small class of people are affected, i.e. a very small subset of attorneys.

What I'm curious about is we all recognize the 'We may refuse service to pretty much anyone if we want' right of businesses to ban people. But that's usually for specific behavior: theft, starting a fight, etc. The use of facial recognition by MSG - as reported - is blocking people whom MSG management has simply said 'we don't like these people' - even though they still sell them the ticket, they just won't let them in the door. It's not much different from an Alabama diner in the '50s with a sign that says 'No Coloreds', just a different type of class - attorneys that are not directly involved in litigation vs MSG as opposed to skin tone.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/msg-probed-over-use-of-facial-recognition-to-eject-lawyers-from-show-venues/

Comments

[disneydream06]

Well, add MSG to my list of businesses that I won't do business with.
Not that I plan on getting to NYC any time soon, but...
Hugs, Jon

In Case You're Wondering About the Parent Company:

[dewline]

They own a lot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Square_Garden_Entertainment

Re: In Case You're Wondering About the Parent Company:

[kaishin108]

Creepy!

Re: In Case You're Wondering About the Parent Company:

[disneydream06]

I don't think any of those are around here.

[kaishin108]

Between facial recognition and AI, things could be getting a bit strange.

[thewayne]

Facial recognition does not work well, but if you are eager to discriminate against women and non-whites, it's a great tool! The vendor who made this system trained their system by stealing photos off of social media, no permission or compensation, and they won't do anything about it. Theoretically you can contact them and get yourself removed from their core database, but I wouldn't bet on that being very effective.

AI, interesting things going on there, it's definitely causing major tumult in a lot of areas, especially art and writing. I've played with AI art generators, and I find them to be interesting toys.

[kaishin108]

That is awful about who ends up training for the facial recognition.

Yes the AI does seem like a fun toy. I have a few other friends here who play with it but then my imagination goes to the future and what it could do.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> The use of facial recognition by MSG - as reported - is blocking people whom MSG management has simply said 'we don't like these people' - even though they still sell them the ticket, they just won't let them in the door. <<

If they sell the ticket but refuse its use, then they have committed fraud by causing people to believe they have purchased the right to use the ticket to enter the venue.

Re: Well ...

[thewayne]

That's my thought. I didn't read whether or not the atty who was kicked out while escorting her daughter's Scout troop was offered a refund. I'm sure she could have easily scalped the ticket outside for many X the purchase price, but no reporting on that which I've seen.

[silveradept]

I think the AG has a good angle to ask about civil rights violations, since the person who brought this to our attention was not a person who was engaged in active litigation against the company, only someone who was employed at a firm that did so. That kind of blanket prohibition could very easily be extended in ways that are clearly discriminatory.

Also, as was noted above, I wonder if there's a contract law angle about selling tickets to someone who you have already banned from the venue, and that you know will be banned from the venue, and therefore they should not be sold the ticket in the first place.