Forty of the world’s largest music festivals — including SXSW, Coachella, Pitchfork, and Bonnaroo — have gone on the record to promise that they will not use facial recognition technology at their events, following a campaign launched by musicians and activists to ban the technology. From a report: Today, organizers of the campaign are declaring victory. “It’s so important that people don’t just learn about how scary and dangerous surveillance technology like facial recognition is but also learn about successful efforts to stop it,” Evan Greer, the deputy director of Fight For the Future, a digital rights rights advocacy group that spearheaded the campaign, told Motherboard.

This victory for digital rights activists and musicians is the first major setback to commercial facial recognition companies in the United States, and could have ripples beyond the industry. In recent years, many music events have become increasingly Orwellian experiences. Biometric surveillance companies and venture capitalists have identified music festivals as a huge potential market for facial recognition technologies, which can be marketed as a way for concertgoers to bypass long lines. But musicians and activists have concerns.

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Source: Slashdot – 40 Major Music Festivals Have Pledged Not To Use Facial Recognition Technology