I was at the Rose Bowl this year and something I noticed was how much of the game was spent staring at the jumbotron rather than watching the game live.<p>Sitting in the stands no longer feels like you're watching an incredible game. Instead it feels like you're watching the game live on ESPN(given the level of advertisements) but sitting in the stands.<p>I'm certainly not the first to point out how commercialized sports have become, but it's disconcerting seeing stadiums try to hook you into staring at an ad for four hours instead of enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime experience.<p>Another example was the flyover: A B2 flew over just before kickoff[0] and I, along with almost everyone else, had never seen one before. An announcement over the loudspeakers asked that everyone hold up a small sign so that the stadium looked like the American flag from above. This was great for viewers at home and horrible for anyone in the stands because all you could see was the back of the sign you and everyone else were holding up.<p>We seem to have gotten so far away from what sports are about(two teams competing to see who's best) that we've landed on milking as much money out of the fans as they possibly can.<p>Facial recognition, in this context, seems to be doing the same. Rather than giving fans a fantastic experience, the folks running these games are trying to monetize them instead.<p>[0] - <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2020/01/check-out-this-aerial-photo-of-the-b-2-bomber-flyover-at-the-2020-rose-bowl.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2020/01/check-out-this-aeri...</a>
Facial recognition tech should really have more regulations in place. What if this was done at the recent protests and there's now a database full of facial data that associates those people with likely political affiliations, etc.<p>Imagine in hitler had access to this tech and simply purchased a database of "Likely Jewish" facial data?
Sports attendance is way down, I don't care what the sports themselves say.<p>During the NFL Playoffs they couldn't show crowd shots because there were enough empty seats that it was noticeable. I saw empty seats at the super bowl.<p>I saw highlight on ESPN of an NBA game before the lock down, and it looked like a high School basketball game because of the number of empty seats.<p>Considering every player in the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL are all part of the 1% I'm done contributing to the rich.<p>I'll go see minor league baseball games, they are much more fun anyway.
Not the first such tests -- there was a trial in Boston in 2013, at a music festival on municipal property (City Hall plaza). <a href="https://digboston.com/boston-used-face-recognition-before-despite-potential-ban-it-likely-will-again/" rel="nofollow">https://digboston.com/boston-used-face-recognition-before-de...</a>
Inevitably when GDPR comes up, there are always HN commenters talking disparagingly about the "nanny state" in Europe. However, I'll take some annoying cookie banners over an ad tech company scanning my face any day of the week. If this was in Europe, they would've gotten hit with a fine of 4% of their revenue.
I think people might be freaked out if they learned just how many stores/attractions already have similar tech implemented. Ah who am I kidding, the average person doesn’t seem to care all that much - quite unfortunate.<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/are-stores-you-shop-secretly-using-face" rel="nofollow">https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-te...</a>
It seems a bit weird to say that something hasn't been reported in the mainstream media, and then link to a Rolling Stone article on it from two years ago...
This can't be stopped. Better to stop resisting tech advancements and instead learn to adapt. Airports are starting to do this scanning as well, and they won't go away; travellers don't know they exist and have few rights when in secure environments.