Taylor Swift Invades Concertgoers' Privacy with Big Brother Technology
As the world around us becomes more connected, the gadgets we utilize to stay connected have become unbelievably powerful.
There are concerns that this rapid rise of ultra-powerful technology could lead to a very Orwellian nightmare, in which we are monitored from the cradle to the grave, all the while having our habits dissected by AI for the purpose of selling us more stuff.
After all, the biggest driver of technology is money. Not compassion, necessity, or righteousness. No, the people with the most advanced people-watching technologies are those who make their money off of advertising…namely Google and the world of social media. This tech is being developed to examine your every move, hoping to find key indicators that will allow advertisers to impact you at the most opportune of times.
In the case of Taylor Swift’s recent use of facial recognition technology on her fans, the system was employed in order to keep the star safe.
Security for Taylor Swift at California’s Rose Bowl in May 2018 included a facial recognition system monitored from almost 2,000 miles away.
A kiosk set up to show highlights of the singer’s rehearsals secretly recorded the faces of onlookers, which were sent to a “command post” in Nashville, Tennessee that attempted to match those images to hundreds of images of known Taylor Swift stalkers, according to Rolling Stone.
“Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working,” Mike Downing, chief security officer at live entertainment security company Oak View Group, who personally attended the event, said. Oak View Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Advertisement - story continues belowIt’s unknown whether the footage was kept, or if it even identified any real stalkers—and if it did, what happened after they were identified.
Similar to the concerns of unwieldy power held by Google and the like, concert venues can simply write off privacy concerns within their confines due to their status as “private property”.
