New York Mets Sued For Using Facial Recognition Technology On Fans At Citi Field

Published|Updated

The New York Mets may have more information about you than you wanted to give them.

According to a new lawsuit, the Mets and their billionaire owner Steve Cohen have reportedly been taking digital scans of Mets fans' faces using new facial recognition technology and giving it to third party vendors.

A lawsuit filed by Mets fan Chris Dowling claims that the team is using their Citi Field cameras as ‘facial identifiers’ and sending them to third party processing sites that then uses your data (and facial features.) Dowling claims that the facial tech information is thereby being used ‘for value or profit’ and is a violation of New York City's Biometrics Law. 

The team says that they only use the facial tech for ‘security purposes,’ although free speech proponents claim that the term "security" is vague and can lead to a slippery slope. 

New York Mets fans have their faces scanned by facial recognition technology.  (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Dowling argues that the team is also using your face to see if you are on any of Citi Field's banned lists - which may not always have to deal with anything you may have done on the actual ballpark premises.

Last year, a Girl Scout Troop leader was prohibited from entering into Radio City Music Hall to see The Rockettes perform because she worked at a law firm that was suing Radio City and Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan. Despite the mother not being a part of the litigation whatsoever, the fact that she worked at the law firm put her on a ban list from all MSG Properties, something she wasn't made aware of until she was embarrassingly not let into The Rockettes show in front of her daughter and the rest of the Girl Scouts Troop.

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The Mets "increase their profit margin when they choose to use facial recognition as opposed to using manual labor to adequately protect its 400,000 square foot premises," Dowling argues. 

So far, the Mets have not publicly commented on the lawsuit as they've been a bit busy with the team advancing to the NLCS in which they will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Best of Seven series beginning tomorrow night.