NEW YORK — A small group of protesters gathered Wednesday outside Citi Field in the New York borough of Queens to oppose the increased use of facial recognition scans.
A group of eight people from the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future and the New York-based nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) protested facial recognition scanning and other biometric data collection outside Mets games, hoping to raise awareness among spectators about what is happening to the small percentage of ticket holders who do make it into the stadium.
Before entering a Mets game, some ticket holders pass through a scanner that collects and verifies a facial image. At least 21 stadiums and arenas across the country have installed the technology, Slate magazine reported. Some venues, such as Citi Field, only scan the faces of certain ticket holders who opt to use the technology in the hopes that it will shorten lines and speed up concession transactions. Five other baseball stadiums in Philadelphia, Kansas City, Missouri, San Francisco, Houston and Washington, D.C., have the same program. Other venues, such as Madison Square Garden, use the technology for everyone who enters the stadium.
Digital rights groups say facial recognition scans are prone to error and pose threats to privacy, safety and data security.
A demonstration by Fight for the Future and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project outside Citi Field. Kat Tenbarge/NBC News
Groups that oppose the use of the technology have called on Major League Baseball and other sports leagues to stop using it.
“It's one thing to use facial recognition on your iPhone — and you get to decide when to use it — but it's another thing when a big company uses it against you,” STOP executive director Albert Fox Cahn told NBC News. “If we deploy this kind of invasive, discriminatory and abusive technology, it will mean many New Yorkers are barred from their stadiums.”
Khan and other protesters pointed to research showing that facial recognition technology is biased and prone to errors in identifying people of color, particularly black people, women, children and the elderly. In some cases, facial recognition has led to false accusations and wrongful arrests of black people. Protesters also suggested that such data could one day be used by law enforcement, which has already happened with biometric data collected at sports stadiums in Brazil.
Citi Field has been using facial recognition for ticket purchases for those who opt in since 2021, touting the option as “Mets Entry Express.” Similar technology has been rolled out in stadiums, arenas and airports around the world. Madison Square Garden is using facial recognition scans to prevent lawyers representing plaintiffs in lawsuits against the venue owner from attending events.
“If these large organizations can weaponize our bodies and use our biometric data as a tracking tool without our consent, it's really frightening how many ways it could be used,” Khan said, adding that facial recognition scanning software has become cheaper in recent years and more vendors are marketing the technology to business owners and landlords.
The groups proposed introducing two bills to the New York City Council in February that would regulate the use of facial recognition software, banning its use for verifying or identifying customers at public facilities or verifying the identities of residential tenants or their guests.
Participants also presented a letter signed by 11 human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, opposing any use of facial recognition technology in major league sports.
“Most facial recognition technologies store people's biometric data in large databases, and no matter what technology companies say about the security of that data, they cannot guarantee its security,” the letter said. “Hackers and identity thieves are constantly looking for ways to penetrate even the most secure data storage systems. When it comes to facial surveillance data, the consequences of a breach cannot be overstated: unlike a credit card number, a stolen face cannot be replaced.”
Wednesday's demonstration is part of a series of protests organized by Fight for the Future that are scheduled to take place outside stadiums across the U.S. in the coming weeks. In September, the group protested outside a Phillies game in Philadelphia, where facial recognition technology is also used for some ticket purchases.
