Property-access fight in NYC draws a biometric privacy lawsuit

A proposed class action has been filed against Madison Square Garden Entertainment alleging the company is violating New York City’s biometric privacy law.

It is at least the second suit involving MSGE’s use of facial recognition, and was spotted by Bloomberg Law. The other is a fairly straightforward cease-and-desist order.

Company CEO James Dolan has taken to scanning the faces of people entering any of the many venues he manages. Dolan is looking for any attorneys who work for law firms that are opposing MSGE in court so that he can refuse them entry.

The proposed class action (case 23:23-cv-05537) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges MSGE with using in trade and profiting from plaintiffs’ biometric identifiers.

New York law, however, forbids the sale of face biometrics by businesses or to “otherwise profit from the transaction of biometric identifier information,” according to court papers.

In using the biometric data as it has, according to the plaintiff, it is profiting from it, and the defendant did not get express consent.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  data privacy  |  lawsuits  |  New York City