Manchester City have been cautioned against the introduction of facial recognition technology, which a civil rights group says would risk “normalising a mass surveillance tool”.
The reigning Premier League champions are considering introducing technology allowing fans to get into the Etihad Stadium more quickly by showing their faces instead of tickets, according to the Sunday Times.
If someone is recognised as having bought a ticket, they would be ushered in by a green light, and if not they would be halted with a yellow one.
Hannah Couchman, the policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “This is a disturbing move by Manchester City, subjecting football fans to an intrusive scan, much like taking a fingerprint, just so they can go to the Saturday game.
“It’s alarming that fans will be sharing deeply sensitive personal information with a private company that boasts about collecting and sharing data on each person that walks through the gate, and using this to deny people entry. Manchester City should urgently reconsider their involvement in normalising a mass surveillance tool which can track and monitor us as we go about our everyday lives.”
Blink Identity, a Texas-based facial recognition company, says its technology can identify people walking at regular speed, so fans will not need to slow down to show a ticket or use a turnstile.
To opt in, supporters would need to register a selfie taken on their phone. Blink Identity says it is also possible to “collect usable and sharable data” on every person that walks through its facial scanning software.
The team behind Blink Identity have spent the last decade creating large-scale biometric identification systems in the Middle East for the US Department of Defense, according to its website. Last year Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster, announced investment in Blink Identity as part of plans to replace paper tickets with facial recognition.
A source at Manchester City said reports of a pilot facial recognition scheme were premature andthere was no such plan in place. They said the club would always be “open to exploring new and appropriate technologies and systems to improve fans’ experience at the stadium”.
Amanda Jacks, a caseworker at the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), an organisation that represents football fans, said she shared the concerns of civil liberties organisations regarding the necessity for facial recognition technology. She saidthe FSA would be monitoring how it was used.
“Given fans will still have to be searched before entering any stadium, and the technology is apparently only fractionally faster that electronic card readers, it’s difficult to see how this is genuinely an improvement on the current system,” Jacks said. “Notably, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no formal guidance from the Premier League or Sports Ground Safety Authority on the use of this technology.”
Privacy campaigners have recently warned of an “epidemic” of facial recognition use in private spaces around the UK. An investigation by Big Brother Watch, which tracks the use of surveillance, found that property developers, shopping centres, museums, conference centres and casinos were using the technology.
The Observer reported that some police forces were pushing back at Home Office proposals to introduce facial recognition schemes.
Last week the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, announced an investigation into the use of facial recognition in a new shopping development in Kings Cross, central London, and last month the parliamentary science and technology committee said authorities should halt trials of facial recognition technology until a legal framework was established.