Thousands of people lined up outside Citi Field in Queens, Modern York, on Wednesday to watch the Mets play the Orioles. But outside the ticket booth, a handful of protesters handed out flyers. They were there to protest a recent Major League Baseball program that is becoming increasingly common in professional sports: the apply of facial recognition on fans.
Facial recognition companies and their clients say the systems save time and therefore money by reducing queues at stadiums. But skeptics say the surveillance tools are never completely secure, make it easier for police to gather information about fans and fuel a “mission creep” in which surveillance technology becomes more common or even required.
MLB’s facial recognition program, dubbed Entry with permission to startallows participating fans to go through a separate security line, usually shorter than other lines. Fans download the MLB Ballpark app, submit a selfie and have their faces compared at a personal camera kiosk at the stadium entrance.
Six MLB teams The Go-Ahead Entry program includes the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals.
Some MLB teams, including the Mets, have their own facial recognition programs for quick check-in. The Mets apply a facial recognition company Wicket As part of the Mets Entry Express program, the Cleveland Guardians have also been using Clear technology at their Progressive Field stadium since 2021. since 2019.
Jeff Boehm, Wicket’s COO, told WIRED in an email that the company believes in “responsible use of biometric technology to enhance the event experience,” which means that “data security and privacy are taken very seriously.”
Boehm adds, “As with many new technologies, there is a lot of misinformation about how the technology is being used. Contrary to some of these claims, Wicket is always 100% opt-in (and users can opt out at any time) and we do not scan people’s faces without their consent. Data is not shared or sold to any third parties.”
Neither the Mets nor MLB immediately responded to WIRED’s request for comment.
The National Football League has also begun using Wicket facial recognition for quick entry. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy he said in post X that the league-wide program, at least for now, is only available to “team/matchday personnel, vendors and media” — not fans. Cleveland Browns AND Tennessee TitansHowever, there are facial recognition systems that fans can apply. (News of the NFL’s expanded apply of facial recognition is still caused confusion ON Facebook AND Xwhere some believed facial recognition would be required in stadiums for all 32 NFL teams.)
At Citi Field on Wednesday, the Mets Entry Express line was used sparsely, maybe five people every five minutes. There was never a line. The main security lines, while longer by comparison, lasted only about five minutes.
A group of privacy advocates gathered outside Citi Field on Wednesday to warn fans about the growing apply of facial recognition at sporting events.Photo: Caroline Haskins