For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark

Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan has insisted that the face-recognition system and array of surveillance cameras deployed at his venues is “very, very useful for security”—a big reason why MSG “is the most secure venue in the country.”

On the night of July 2, security in and around the Garden was particularly intense. Roughly 130 cops were deployed to the area. New York City officials were preparing to shut down the surrounding blocks to both vehicles and pedestrians the next day for a major, major event.

July 2 was, of course, the kickoff to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding celebration, an approximately 100-person rehearsal dinner at Madison Square Garden’s Infosys Theater. And yet, on that extremely sensitive evening, Dolan’s MSG locked nearly all of its security team out of the network of surveillance cameras inside the arena, according to an internal document reviewed by WIRED. The move functionally prevented MSG security from fully operating the venue’s controversial face-recognition program that evening, two sources familiar with the Garden’s operations say.

While the shutdown order reviewed by WIRED applied only to July 2, those sources add that they were told the lockout was repeated on July 3, Swift and Kelce’s wedding night, which drew roughly 1,000 of the biggest names in media, music, business, and sports.

At every stage of their planning, Swift’s and Kelce’s teams went to extraordinary lengths to keep private what happened inside the Garden. Guests had to sign a nondisclosure agreement before they could receive a digital invitation. Tents were set up for cars to park in, so people could move in and out in relative secrecy (and, presumably, avoid the biometric surveillance gear positioned at the standard entrances). Wedding attendees were told there was a no-phone policy. The only detailed description of the event posted by a wedding night guest was quickly deleted.

According to the internal document, an MSG executive ordered on July 2 a seven-hour lockdown of the Garden’s video management system, made by the security tech company Genetec, “due to a client privacy request.” Security staffers who ordinarily monitor the building’s internal cameras and the accompanying face-recognition software were barred from doing so. The memo states that only a handful of company leaders and engineers were allowed into their Genetec accounts. The rest were “disabled.”

“If you somehow still have access to cameras after 3PM, you will be forcibly logged off,” the document warned MSG security personnel.

Since 2018, Dolan’s company has experimented with biometric surveillance at its venues, which include Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theater in New York, as well as the Sphere in Las Vegas. The organization contends that the technology is a security measure, but there are many publicly documented cases where the face-recognition system appears to have been for something else: retribution.

Fans who’ve been critical of Dolan have had their faces captured and then put on watch lists. A lawyer representing a cop was banned in April because his client is suing MSG. A mom trying to take her then 9-year-old Girl Scout to a Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall had her face flagged and was blocked from entering. The reason: She was an attorney, and her firm was in a legal dispute with one Dolan-controlled entity.

Genetec’s software serves as the backbone for MSG’s video security system, monitoring feeds from the various cameras and allowing security personnel to manage the applications that rely on those feeds, including face recognition. Cameras at the guest entrances are tied into a face-recognition system made by eConnect. If someone’s face triggers an alert, Genetec then allows that person to be easily tracked across the camera network. According to a person familiar with the security surveillance setup, “This makes it much easier to track a person, because we can jump from camera to camera in real time and follow them.”

As WIRED previously reported, Garden security used these systems to monitor a transgender woman second-by-second when she was in the arena. The cameras even noted when she went in and out of a bathroom.