Taylor Swift has come a long way since the start of her musical journey. So much so that now she travels with and employs a large security team to keep her safe. Many celebrities with the same fame as Taylor Swift tend to do the same. Fame seems to bring out some strange fans and strange behaviors in those fans so the concern of the celebrity’s safety is very valid.
Celebrity security details can range from a personal bodyguard at all times all the way to employing facial recognition at their concerts or appearances. That’s exactly what Taylor Swift and her security team are doing at her shows.
Swift’s security team has a kiosk set up at her shows where fans stand and watch rehearsal clips of Taylor Swift to keep them occupied. What the fans don’t know, is that there is a camera behind the display that is scanning their faces. Those scans are sent back to Swift’s security headquarters in Nashville where they compare them to known Swift stalkers. Rolling Stone spoke to Mike Downing, chief security officer of Oak View Group, an advisory board for concert venues including Madison Square Garden and the Forum in Los Angeles.
“Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working,” says Downing, who attended the concert to witness a demo of the system as a guest of the company that manufactures the kiosks. (Swift’s reps did not respond to requests for comment.)
There have been questioned raised about the privacy of concertgoers and the ownership rights of those scans and images. It doesn’t help that concertgoers are completely unaware that they are being photographed and assessed. Rolling Stone reports that Taylor Swift isn’t the only one using facial recognition technology.
Earlier this year, Ticketmaster invested in Blink Identity, a startup that claims its sensors can identify people walking past at full speed in about half a second.
What do you think of celebrities using this technology at their shows? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
