MSG Made Dossier on Activists Who Opposed Facial Recognition
155 points by cdrnsf 4 hours ago | 35 comments

afavour 47 minutes ago
Debating this specific dossier ignores the larger issue, IMO:

> MSG has deployed facial recognition technology since 2018 to identify people entering the venue. MSG’s facial recognition systems have been used to block entry to the stadium for all sorts of people. The list includes lawyers who work at law firms in litigation with MSG, even if they are not part of the litigation themselves; and potentially a man who once made a shirt that criticized Dolan.

> The document was included in a 45GB cache of data hackers stole from MSG and posted online this month

MSG management is not only misusing facial recognition data, they're also so inept as to store it insecurely in a way that violates their own customer's privacy.

We need laws around this stuff. And in the meantime NYC should start playing hardball: if they're going to arbitrarily block people from entering MSG based on corporate vendetta then they need to lose their tax exemption (well, they should anyway...)

https://reinventalbany.org/2023/02/watchdog-supports-state-b...

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gypsy_boots 6 minutes ago
> MSG management is not only misusing facial recognition data

This is making a huge assumption that the goal was ever safety.

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Cider9986 41 minutes ago
Related:

The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine: https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-jim-dolan-...

Archive/paywall: https://archive.ph/iiczs

Post on the MSG data breach: https://www.404media.co/hackers-publish-knicks-and-madison-s...

Archive/paywall: https://archive.ph/qh3UQ

Shinyhunters website: http://shnyhntww34phqoa6dcgnvps2yu7dlwzmy5lkvejwjdo6z7bmgshz...

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xrd 3 hours ago
Please watch/listen to the Pablo Torre podcast about this one for additional context:

https://www.pablo.show/p/inside-james-dolans-deep-state?utm_...

If you don't know, Pablo recently won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Steve Balmer's deal with Aspiration. If you listened only to mainstream media, you would think "Poor Steve, he was duped!" But, Pablo's reporting might change your opinion on that one.

The incredible volume of high quality, well researched shows are so refreshing as an antidote to Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughn, who seem to come into every interview with just the right amount of ignorance to let every guest spew whatever propaganda they want. Pablo never lets that happen.

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zulux 2 hours ago
Aspiration?
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xrd 46 minutes ago
Oops, yes, correct!
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emsign 57 minutes ago
List of Honor. I'm grateful these brave people exist.
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SoftTalker 21 minutes ago
I expect that every major venue is using this technology now. You'd be pretty naive to think otherwise. And keeping lists of people they find "interesting" just goes along with that -- otherwise what's the point?
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joxdosba 2 hours ago
[dead]
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adolph 3 hours ago

  In each section, the document includes background information on the 
  activist, their contact information if available, their social media handles 
  and follower count, then quotes each have previously said about MSG’s facial 
  recognition program. 
This seems like a pretty normal thing to do. If anything its kind of quaint to see “Facial Recognition Activists.docx” . . . in a folder named “Activists" instead of plugging it into a repurposed CRM with built-in social media monitoring, or maybe an electronic Evidence Board in Foundry to tie back EFF donations to season ticket holders of various things. Maybe they do all that too, or maybe the event venue management doesn't care that much.
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afavour 27 minutes ago
It isn’t really a normal thing to do, no. Do you think they keep dossiers on everyone who complains about concession prices? About long lines to get in? Do you think people who have done either of those things get denied access to MSG?

The fact that they’re this motivated to track people on this niche topic sounds alarm bells for me.

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newaccountman2 49 minutes ago
"This seems like a pretty normal thing to do." - adolph

(relevant username)

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robby_w_g 31 minutes ago
I may be out of pocket here, but I think the Hacker News crowd of tech bros who spy on people for a living have a biased opinion on whether spying on people is normal
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LastTrain 6 minutes ago
> This seems like a pretty normal thing to do.

(Name checks out) yeah this is not a normal thing to do. Man we need mandatory ethics classes in school.

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esseph 2 hours ago
> This seems like a pretty normal thing to do.

That is NOT normal.

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darth_avocado 49 minutes ago
Not the one to make this discourse Reddit like but I do find the username pretty unfortunate for the comment.
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iso1631 15 minutes ago
Well you'd like to think that. I agree it shouldn't be normal.

Half the tech industry thinks its fine though -- at least as long as it's not the government doing it.

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1attice 2 hours ago
"Normal" here requires a time bound. I would say it's pretty abnormal if the window is "the last thirty years", and pretty normal if it's "the last thirty days."

Because of the thing.

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wbl 2 hours ago
Dolan is known for being extra petty.
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GuinansEyebrows 2 hours ago
> This seems like a pretty normal thing to do

sorry to the rest of the esteemed hn community for the low-effort reply, but... gross.

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zulux 2 hours ago
We have a document detailing our competitors. So I guess I have to ask...

Am I normal?

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afavour 50 minutes ago
If your document details personal information about your competitors employees and their personal contact details then I think the situation might be comparable.

And very much not normal.

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rolph 10 minutes ago
[delayed]
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Catloafdev 48 minutes ago
You think having a document detailing competitors is the same thing as compiling personal information of people who have publicly commented against what you're doing?

The sandbagging on this story is crazy.

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ramon156 2 hours ago
Do those documents detail personal information, like face identification, family, etc.?

Its usually about the company, not the individual

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Spooky23 49 minutes ago
Competitive intelligence and customer info is one thing. Do you block your business competitors associates and family from accessing public venues?

Dolan does.

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chasd00 2 hours ago
when i'm doing large presentations to prospective clients my company gives me what they call a "look book". This is a deck with information about every person in the audience all the way down to personality traits, triggering words/phrases, and negotiating style. I think it's pretty normal.
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LastTrain 3 minutes ago
Are the potential clients aware that you have this? Are you willing to say who you are or who your company is or would that be embarrassing? I would absolutely not be your client.
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esseph 2 hours ago
Some of you run in dark circles, and this is coming from a guy who got paid to kill people.
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Catloafdev 2 hours ago
Crazy to see this attempt to be normalized here.

No. No, this is not normal.

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smallerize 2 hours ago
People are making a concerted effort to force your business to do something, and you don't want to know their names or how much influence they actually have?
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orlp 22 minutes ago
Actually, they're making an effort to force your business to not do something.
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2d8a875f-39a2-4 2 hours ago
Yeah, not much to see here. Each of the activists named likely had a similar "dossier" on MSG and the Dolan guy. Knowledge workers are going to practise knowledge management. People use to do this with a Rolodex.
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nla 2 hours ago
In NYC, you can trespass anyone from a private business at any time and for no reason at all.

NY Penal Law § 140.00 says a person in premises open to the public is there with license/privilege unless they defy a lawful order not to enter or remain, personally communicated by the owner or another authorized person.

So, in plain English:

“You have to leave. You are not allowed back.”

The owner does not need to say: “You have to leave because…”

There was a ton of hoopla around this when Radio City and MSG trespassed lawyers that were suing the company and venues.

Everyone was up in arms and nothing happened.

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cdrnsf 7 minutes ago
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dec0dedab0de 2 hours ago
i don’t think anyone is claiming it is illegal
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Spooky23 43 minutes ago
It’s billionaire people pushing the bounds of their enclosure, Jurassic Park style. The similar behavior in the west coast are the people who create various hoops to deny the public access to the shore.

NYC grants significant concessions to developers in exchange for public access. It’s important to overreact and push back to every incursion into the public sphere as every incremental pushback of public benefit is cumulative over time.

Manhattan in particular is a precious resource that is already largely a playground for the rich. Normal people used to live there.

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redsocksfan45 20 minutes ago
[dead]
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