At a glance.
- MSG entertainment uses facial recognition to boot rivals.
- Texas DA forces school district to issue breach notifications.
MSG entertainment uses facial recognition to boot rivals.
An attorney claims she was denied entry to a Christmas show at New York City event venue Radio City Music Hall as a result of facial recognition technology. Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment, which owns Radio City Music Hall, began employing facial recognition tech in 2018 as a way to improve security at its venues. The lawyer in question, Kelly Conlon, works as an associate with Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, a law firm that for the past four years has been embroiled in personal injury litigation against a restaurant owned by MSG Entertainment. Conlon alleges that upon entering Radio City Music Hall she was pulled aside by the security staff, who said her face was flagged by the security technology. “They knew my name before I told them,” Conlon said. “They knew the firm I was associated with before I told them. And they told me I was not allowed to be there.”
Similarly, the New York Post reports, attorney Alexis Majano says he was denied entry to a basketball game at the Madison Square Garden sports venue after being detected by facial recognition technology. Majano’s law firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz has a pending lawsuit against Madison Square Garden. Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn told Gizmodo this was the first case he has encountered in which a company used facial recognition to retaliate against an opponent. Cahn stated, “These technologies are ripe for abuse, and it’s long past time that New York City outlaw facial recognition. Giving companies, the wealthy, and the government the ability to track nearly anyone at any time is a recipe for disaster. No one should fear that they’ll be banned from public life simply because they fight for their client’s rights in court.”
Texas DA forces school district to issue breach notifications.
San Benito school district, located in the US state of Texas, suffered a recent data breach that potentially impacted up to 30,000 employees. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz says school district officials refused to heed his requests that they notify the victims of the incident, so he took matters into his own hands and disclosed the breach to the public. “On Dec. 9, I requested of the district to please notify the victims of the stolen confidential information — and they didn’t,” Saenz told MyRGV.com on Tuesday. “On Dec. 19, I again requested of the district to notify the victims of the stolen confidential information and again they didn’t. So I had no choice but to make the announcement myself.”
The school district says they were still in the process of identifying the victims and were simply following protocol by waiting to send notifications until the compromised individuals were identified. District spokeswoman Isabel Gonzalez stated on Tuesday evening, “The district never refused to provide a disclosure of the data security matter and previously advised the DA multiple times that it would do so but as of yesterday afternoon was still in the process of identifying the persons who may have been affected. This is the customary and proper way to disclose such an incident.” Saenz notes that the law requires victims be notified of security breaches no more than sixty days after they are detected, and he says his office is still investigating the incident to determine the date on which it occurred.