The Scan in the Arena
If you want a trip to the future, you can either invent a time machine or get a ticket to an event at Madison Square Garden. In addition to being the home court of the NBA champs and recently being transformed into a wedding venue, James Dolan’s MSG also provides a pretty decent glimpse into our looming surveillance society. Everyone who enters the Garden is scanned, and if you’re a known visitor, you’re entered into a database and given a risk rating. “People of concern are ranked on a scale, the source explained. ‘Flag’ is the lowest, an indication to discuss the VIP with a supervisor. Next is ‘low risk’—that’s the marking for [Edie] Falco, [Tracy] Morgan, and Ben Stiller, their fellow Knicks ride-or-die. After that is ‘medium risk’ (Lily Allen, her ex David Harbour, and the country singer Morgan Wallen) and ‘high risk’ (the hip-hop stars Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, DaBaby, and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie). The rapper Lil Tjay, who recently was involved in an altercation at the Garden’s Hulu Theater, is ‘BANNED FROM MSG,’ according to the database.” But high-profile visitors aren’t just given risk rankings. “The talent database also tracks some celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 93 entries are marked as ‘LGBTQIA.’ Why MSG felt the need to label Ricky Martin or Phoebe Bridgers or Geese’s Emily Green in this way is unclear.” Wired: Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities. “An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests.” Some of these tactics are unique to MSG, but it won’t be long before this is all considered garden variety surveillance. And how do we know about this list? It was accessed and released by a hacker group. Hey, you said you wanted to see the future…
+ More from an earlier Wired piece: The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine.
+ More from the podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out: Tracking Taylor Swift Wedding Guests.
