A leaked document shows that Madison Square Garden Entertainment tracked the personal details of three prominent privacy activists who opposed its use of facial recognition technology. The file was part of a larger data breach that exposed millions of customer records earlier this month.
The dossier, titled "Facial Recognition Activists.docx," listed information on Adam Schwartz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Albert Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, and Evan Greer of Fight for the Future. It included their backgrounds, contact information, social media activity and follower counts.
Hackers released the file along with 45 gigabytes of stolen data from the company earlier in June. The breach also exposed 26 million customer records containing contact details and biometric information. Madison Square Garden Entertainment now faces three class-action lawsuits over the incident.
Activists responded with criticism of the company's practices. Schwartz noted that biometric surveillance is especially risky because faces cannot be changed. Greer stated that large companies use such technology to punish critics without regard for rights.
Facial recognition cameras have operated at the company's New York venues since 2018. The firm uses the systems to identify security threats, though the approach has drawn ongoing opposition from civil rights groups and public officials.
