Musicians and Activists Speak Out Against Ticketmaster’s Investment in Facial Recognition Technology
Photos by Ethan Miller/Getty, Kahn & Selesnick
Fight For the Future, a nonprofit digital rights group that is campaigning to ban facial recognition software as a law enforcement tool, launched a new campaign Tuesday focusing on the use of the technology at concerts and festivals. Their efforts are gaining traction with prominent musicians across social media speaking out against Ticketmaster’s investment in the technology.
The Verge reported in 2018 that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had invested in Blink Identity, a company specializing in military-grade facial recognition software. The conglomerate announced the partnership as part of a report of Live Nation’s first-quarter 2018 earnings, citing “cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show.” Blink, whose team has spent the last 10 years working with the Department of Defense in the Middle East, proudly declare that their primary appeal is their ability to identify people in motion. Their technology identifies people in “a blink!” as they walk past a sensor, without stopping to look directly into a camera.
“Privacy First Facial Recognition Is Here,” Blink proclaims, which is nothing if not an oxymoron. Nonetheless, the company explains that their systems are voluntary and that participants would have to upload a selfie to enroll, which would then converted into a mathematical template and cannot be converted back into a photograph. When entering a venue, Blink would not be able to identify attendees unless they walk through a clearly marked Blink Identity line.
Enrolling in a facial recognition system might be voluntary, but it’s questionable whether these technologies should exist at all. Though Ticketmaster has not yet announced plans to implement Blink’s technology, by investing in such opt-in programs for ticketed events, they are setting a dangerous precedent for the normalization of constant facial recognition in the future. Blink’s unsettling services indeed go beyond event admission. They suggest that concertgoers purchase drinks and merch “using their face,” and note that commercial buildings could use their technologies to “monitor employee location and space utilization 24/7.” And of course, it’s “possible to collect usable and sharable data on each person” identified by their system.
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