Madison Square Garden turned off its surveillance system for Taylor Swift’s wedding

This year, two controversial WIRED reports detailed that Madison Square Garden Entertainment maintained a database that included assessments of gender, sexuality, and race and assigned “risk scores.” Yesterday, the publication released an update: when “the most secure venue in the country” (per owner James Dolan) hosted the much-discussed nuptials of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, it temporarily restricted access to its interior Genetec surveillance system.

As outlined in the report, the details of Swift’s and Kelce’s wedding were kept top-secret, with guests reportedly being asked to sign NDAs to ensure none of its details leaked. (Rumors have spread that Swift herself will eventually release some iteration of the weekend’s footage, but those reports remain only speculative.) Those precautions extended as far as MSG’s security system, which was locked down for seven hours on July 2 barring “a handful of company leaders and engineers” while the venue’s exterior camera feeds remained online.  According to WIRED, sources said the lockdown was repeated on July 3, Swift and Kelce’s wedding night.

Critics complained that the surveillance shutdown is a harbinger of a near future in which privacy is a luxury commodity. Others have used the opportunity to question the efficacy of the system at large. If it can be shut down to host hundreds of the world’s richest and most famous entertainers, then why is it necessary for the venue’s security at all? Madison Square Garden Entertainment is currently suing WIRED for defamation. The lawsuit argues that the publication issued “unethical and inflammatory” statements about MSG. WIRED responded that it would “vigorously” defend its reporting.

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