According to a report by Rolling Stone, singer Taylor Swift used facial recognition technology to identify known stalkers at a concert earlier this year.
At a May concert in California, Swift’s teams put up videos of rehearsals around the venues. What fans didn’t know was the screens had a facial-recognition camera and they were monitoring for Swift’s known stalkers.
Mike Downing, the chief security officer of Oak View Group, said the images were transferred to a center in Nashville and cross-referenced with a database of individuals. Oak View Group works with some of the biggest venues in the country, including Madison Square Garden and The Forum.
He explained: ‘Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working.’
People have brought up privacy concerns about a system like this, but more and more venues are starting to invest in this type of technology for safety and efficiency purposes.
As the Guardian noted, concerts are private events and therefore Swift’s team was under no obligation to tell ticket-holders about the tech.
Real threats to her safety
Swift has dealt with serious threats to her safety from various people.
In April, authorities arrested a man who broke into Swift’s New York City home, took a shower, and fell asleep in a bed.
In another incident earlier this year, a different man tried to break into the singer’s Beverly Hills mansion. He had ‘alarming paraphernalia’ in his car, including gun ammunition, a knife, black rope, and numerous masks.
Looking forward
This facial-recognition technology isn’t the only news out of Swift’s concerts.
The singer took to Twitter this morning and announced her Reputation concert will be hitting Netflix on 31 December.
Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! Today I finally get to show you something we’ve been working on for a while… the trailer for the Reputation Stadium Tour! The entire concert film will premiere on @Netflix at 12:01AM PT December 31. pic.twitter.com/ZL3Kx2OUx8
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 13, 2018
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