EYES ON YOU: The Cleveland Browns were Wicket Software’s pilot client.
Facial recognition can be used for surveillance and/or convenience
An executive at one of the leading providers of facial recognition technology at venues says its software is primarily used in sports as opposed to concerts and other non-sports events and is not marketed as a surveillance tool.
“We have not used it as much for concerts or for other activities at (professional sports) venues,” said Jeff Boehm, chief operating officer at Wicket Software. “In some cases, when artists come in, they bring in all their own equipment and their own security and ticketing and stuff like that. In other cases, they rely on the venues for that sort of setup.”
Facial and other forms of biometric recognition and things like license plate readers have been in use for years and now are entrenched in commercial spaces.
Privacy concerns notwithstanding, is the cat out of the bag?
“My first answer is, I do think in many ways, the cat is out of the bag, and technologies like this and other surveillance technologies are being widely used,” Boehm said.” I personally am not sure I’m always comfortable with all the different use cases of those technologies and how it’s being used, but it is out there, and I do think that it would be good for regulators and overseers to continue to have guard rails on how that technology is used and how that data can be used that’s being collected. That’s sort of general. I think when you look at specific use cases, especially in industry, whether it’s Clear or what we’re doing, or what MLB is doing with their Go Ahead solution, the way that we vendors are approaching this, is to try to be very upfront and transparent with people about what they’re signing up for.”
“If I’m a Cleveland Browns season ticket holder, and I say, ‘Okay, do I trust the Browns overall?’ It’s the Browns who actually own this data. ‘Do I trust them to be good stewards of my data? And do I want to let them take a picture of my face in exchange for the convenience of getting into the stadium four times faster than everybody else when I’m rushing in from tailgating to getting there for kickoff? I think, ‘OK.” Tens of thousands of Browns fans have said, ‘Yeah, we trust the Browns to do that. We’re going to do it.’ Some people have said no, and the Browns are okay with that, and we’re okay with that. We’re not enforcing it and making it mandatory. It’s, you’re exchanging your picture for convenience. That’s where making it opt in and ensuring that people have choice is really important. It gets tricky when people are using it or it’s being used without people’s consent or knowledge. It’s a line that we definitely won’t cross here at Wicket.”
The NFL Cleveland Browns are Wicket’s pilot customer.
“The people that have been built Wicket had been working together on similar technology for a number of years,” he said. “They were actually doing more out-of-home advertising like advertising boards and stadiums and stuff like that, but when Covid hit and business shut down the Browns actually approached the team and said, ‘Hey, could you use your technology to help us get fans back into the stadium safely?’”
The team at what is now Wicket, in partnership with the Browns, which like other teams pay the company an annual licensing fee to use the technology, gave the team a small, minority equity stake in the company.
“They didn’t make an investment, but in exchange for the work that they did,” Boehm said. “This is common with other very early technology companies that I’ve been part of, those very, early companies often get a, you know a small stake in the company in exchange for all the effort they gave and helping develop the product.”
Boehm said it’s important to be clear about “two very different use cases of biometric technology.”
“One is for surveillance and looking out over a large crowd,” he said. “There’s soccer teams in Europe that use this to keep tabs on fans who have been unruly. They’re surveilling an entire crowd and looking for people.”
That is not how Wicket markets or uses its tech, Boehm said, pointing out that the reported instance of lawyers involved in suits against Madison Square Garden owner Jim Dolan being recognized and barred from entry is a form of surveillance that’s not in Wicket’s wheelhouse.
“You couldn’t use our technology to do that,” he said. “Our technology is only used 100% opt-in fashion, where people are saying, I want to use this technology, and I want to have my face scanned in order to gain admission, or in order to make a payment, in order to access a restricted area, or whatever it may be. We are only used where people are intentionally saying, I want to use it, I want to have my face scanned in order to achieve a benefit. There’s other examples of people using the technology where people are not knowing that they’re being scanned, or opting into that. Again, we at Wicket stay completely away from that. That is against how we how we market and sell and use our technology.”
The TSA is now testing retinal eye scans with an eye toward eliminating the need for ID when crossing airport security.
“The TSA use case is very similar,” Boehm said. “That’s not our technology. Again, there’s lots of places where, where technology like this can be used. I think the ultimate goal with the TSA is to not have to show your ID at all. Be able to walk up and, you know, look at a camera, and it’ll say, you know, welcome. I recognize you. It saves you the act of having to pull out an ID or a boarding pass or anything like that, and that’s similar to what we’re doing when you show up as a ticketed fan for those places that use it for ticketing. You don’t have to pull out your ticket, you don’t have to find your QR code or your group’s QR codes or anything like that. You just show your face and it recognizes you and matches you with your tickets and walk in.”
Boehm is admittedly new to the venue facial recognition technology, having been with Wicket for a year and a half, but he’s been in tech for 30years, mostly in big data and analytics and other segments of the industry.
“This was my first foray biometrics, but many of the core members of this team have been working on this technology for five to seven years now,” he said. “ Our core computer vision algorithms team, our core technology team, has been together for a number of years, even predating the initial launch of Wicket as a company.”
