James Dolan responded to criticisms of Madison Square Garden’s use of facial recognition expertise throughout an appearance on Fox 5 New York on Thursday, marking the primary time the proprietor of the Knicks and Rangers mentioned its utilization at his services. Here’s what it’s essential know:
- MSG — which owns each groups, the world, and various different locations in New York City — has taken warmth for blocking ticketholders from its venues through the use of the tech to determine them. Recent information protection has reported on MSG banning legal professionals from corporations suing the group from getting into its venues and utilizing facial recognition to implement these bans.
- Dolan, who’s the pinnacle of each MSG Sports and MSG Entertainment, the mum or dad firms of the 2 sports activities groups and the holding firm for the MSG-owned venues, downplayed using facial recognition and its seriousness and as a substitute pivoted to attacking the State Liquor Authority and politicians who’ve criticized MSG.
- One agency that has had its workers barred from MSG has reportedly said it would attempt to have MSG’s liquor license revoked. Dolan stated Tuesday he could ban liquor gross sales at a future Knicks or Rangers sport to show some extent, saying MSG would put up a photograph of the CEO of the State Liquor Authority, alongside together with his e-mail and cellphone quantity, within the enviornment to encourage followers to contact him as a substitute.
What Dolan stated
“Facial recognition is just a technology,” Dolan stated throughout the interview. “When I walked into the studio did you recognize my face? … Facial recognition. Technology just makes you better at it. The real issue that’s going on here is our policy of not letting attorneys who are suing us not in our building until they’re done.”
Dolan identified that there are various cameras in public areas right now.
“What facial recognition does is it recognizes your face and says ‘Are you someone who is on this list?’ If you’re a terrorist it’ll say ‘That’s a terrorist,’” he stated. “Then appropriate action can be taken. It’s very, very useful for security.”
Dolan confirmed that MSG has received an inquiry from New York Attorney General Letitia James and stated the corporate would reply her questions.
“Our values are important to us, too,” Dolan stated. “The Garden has to defend itself. People say you’re too sensitive, you shouldn’t defend yourself.”
He went on to say, “if you sue us we’re going to tell you not to come.”
“If you’re grandstanding with the press, etc., and threatening my liquor license, I’m going to tell you, ‘Go ahead, take away my liquor license.’ People are still going to come to the games,” he stated. “We don’t make all of our money on alcohol.”
Dolan added that the State Liquor Authority has reached out to Madison Square Garden about taking away its liquor license.
“This isn’t going to bother me because I’ve been sober 29 years,” he stated. “I don’t need the liquor.”
Dolan additionally responded to criticism from New York state politicians. State senator Liz Krueger wrote a letter to the State Liquor Authority asking it to research if MSG’s bans violate their liquor license. State senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal is co-sponsoring a invoice that will stop MSG from utilizing facial recognition to ban folks.
“There’s all kinds of politicians who are jumping into this, none of them for the right reasons,” Dolan stated. “The attorney general is just asking questions. We’re happy to answer questions.”
Dolan went on to level out that MSG is “not a governmental entity, it’s a private company.”
After acknowledging that his teams get tax abatements, he stated: “Every team in New York gets tax abatements. If you don’t think that we should get tax abatements, then you should take them away from all the teams.”
Asked if he’s involved concerning the legislation that will cease his facial recognition utilization, Dolan stated he wasn’t, citing “a thing called the Bill of Rights.”
“A bakery, a restaurant, you get to say who you serve,” he stated. “For whatever reason.”
Required studying
(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)
