Know your data 34: we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone

At the dawn of the age of surveillance tech, Google's then CEO Eric Schmidt famously quipped that privacy is not a thing, and one should not worry if one isn't doing anything wrong. The fallacy of that statement has always been there: "wrong" is in the eye of the beholder!

The future has arrived. The news came out that the management of Madison Square Garden, the venue for many a grand sports event in NYC, has been using facial recognition technology to pick out people on their "enemies list" and expel them from MSG events.

Who are these enemies? We know at least one group - lawyers who work for law firms that are on the wrong side of lawsuits involving MSG. Without a doubt, there are other types of enemies on the list, we just don't know.

What wrong have these lawyers done? Their offense is to be employed by law firms that have taken on certain cases.

Take this to its absurd conclusion: one cannot work for law firms anymore. There are always opponents on every case so any number of establishments can ban you.

Not just lawyers either.

Amazon can ban you because you dare shop at Walmart. Delta can ban you because you dare fly on United. Tesla can ban you because you made fun of Elon Musk on Twitter. James Dolan, MSG's CEO, already threatened journalists who dared object to his use of facial recognition tech.

Don't forget six degrees.

Facebook (I mean, Meta) bans you from Instagram because you work for Google. Wait, Facebook has the people graph, so it can ban you because your spouse works for Google, or your best friend from high school works for Google.

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With the number of surveillance cameras mounted everywhere, it'd be a surprise that we don't already have an app that tells us where any given person is currently located. Want to know if your boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating? There's an app for it. Want to know if your kid is skipping classes or out partying late? There's an app for it. Want to know if your employee is working from home or slacking off? There's an app for it. Want to know what time your boss left the office? There's an app for it.

There is no natural law to confine surveillance technologies to use cases that benefit users. Indeed, such technology has acknowledged benefits, such as helping law enforcement catch burglars or murderers. Some people may find it "convenient" not having to face another human when checking out their groceries while consenting to having their faces captured and stored in databases.

It's the same technology: if you desire the good, you have to accept the consequences of the bad.

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I read that Amazon is just now testing pay by your palmprint. I know, that article cites senators who are "concerned" about the palmprint technology. It's amusing that they are not concerned about government usage of surveillance tech (unless it's a foreign government), or so-called public-private partnerships that lead to surveillance data being passed from companies to governments. We seem to be comforting ourselves that surveillance tech is fine because we have a benevolent government. History also tells us that autocracies are fine so long as the rulers are benevolent.