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A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC. Gothamist Listen Live Donate News Momentum builds to ban Madison Square Garden's 'surveillance empire' By Charles Lane Published Aug 14, 2026 at 4:28 p.m. ET
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A bill that would restrict private businesses in New York City from using facial recognition on customers has won the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration and a majority of the City Council, sponsors and supporters said Friday.
Advocates and lawmakers announced the momentum at a rally outside Madison Square Garden, whose owner, James Dolan, has used the technology to track visitors and bar attorneys pursuing litigation against the venue . The Garden is the campaign's highest-profile target, even though many stores in the city use the technology.
The bills would broadly prohibit businesses open to the public from scanning customers' faces and other biometric features, and limit how the resulting data can be shared.
The endorsement from Mamdani's administration was announced at the rally by Councilmember Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn, the prime sponsor of one of the bills.
"No one should have to surrender their personal privacy in order to watch their favorite sports team," said Samuel Levine, the city's commissioner of consumer and worker protection. "This kind of mass surveillance opens the door to abuse and discrimination, making consumers in our city uniquely vulnerable. It's time to ban the scan and protect New Yorkers' privacy and civil rights."
The Council's Progressive Caucus also endorsed the measure this week, bringing its co-sponsor count to 28, according to city records, a majority of the 51-member Council. The bill still needs the backing of Speaker Julie Menin, who has not endorsed it.
Hanif told reporters she is "in conversation" with the speaker. The speaker’s office would only say that the bills are going through the legislative process.
Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future and one of the rally's organizers, said Dolan's use of the technology is just one piece of a broader threat.
"James Dolan has assembled a surveillance empire that rivals some nation states, and there are far fewer rules governing how he can use it than how our own government can use its surveillance capabilities," Greer said.
Speakers said the risks to everyday New Yorkers are partly hypothetical and partly documented.
Hanif said leaked biometric data could be handed to federal immigration authorities and used to detain or deport immigrants, though she acknowledged that scenario is theoretical.
As real-world examples, she and others pointed to a cyberattack this summer that exposed MSG visitor data , and to Rite Aid, which the Federal Trade Commission banned from using facial recognition after the technology repeatedly misidentified Black women as shoplifters. Greer cited what she described as a case in which a man was falsely arrested and beaten in jail after Macy's facial recognition system misidentified him.
The facial recognition ban supported by the city’s consumer affairs commissioner would bar sports arenas, concert venues, stores and other businesses open to the public from using biometric recognition, including face, iris, voice, fingerprint or gait scans, to identify or verify customers. It would also prohibit selling or sharing that data with third parties, and would let customers sue for violations, with damages of up to $5,000 for each intentional or reckless breach.
A companion bill sponsored by Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, which doesn’t yet have a majority in the Council or support from Levine, would further limit how such data can be sold or shared.
Speakers said Madison Square Garden is the campaign's flagship example because of Dolan's yearslong use of the technology. In one widely reported case , a mother was turned away from Radio City Music Hall while chaperoning a Girl Scout troop because she worked at a law firm suing the company. Reporting this summer by 404 Media found that hacked MSG files included a three-page dossier on Greer.
Madison Square Garden did not return messages seeking comment but has supported the technology in the past as a business decision to “defend” the Garden .
This story has been updated with more information.
Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected] , or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715
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