New York City’s Mamdani criticizes Madison Square Garden owner over surveillance tech
The mayor's comments come after the entertainment giant's data breach last year, which exposed James Dolan's surveillance.
New York City's Mayor Zohran Mamdani has spoken out against Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan's use of surveillance technology. Mamdani, in an interview with Wired, decried the company's surveillance practices as indicative of broader societal issues. He also noted that City Council member Shahana Hanif has introduced legislation to ban biometric data collection in public spaces across the city.
Mamdani stated that this draft legislation is "an important response to this kind of an issue." The criticisms follow a series of Wired reports exposing Madison Square Garden's reliance on surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology to monitor individuals both inside and outside of its venues. Wired revealed that Dolan's company maintains a database that categorizes some visitors, including celebrities, as "LGBTQIA," for reasons that remain unclear.
In response to the reporting, Dolan filed a lawsuit against Wired. In 2021, a woman was barred from Radio City, another Dolan-owned venue, after being identified by facial recognition technology as an attorney involved in litigation against Dolan's company, despite not being part of the case. Madison Square Garden declined to comment on the matter.
Since 2021, New York City has mandated businesses to disclose their use of biometric data collection from visitors.
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