NYC Subway Denies Using 'Real-Time Face Recognition Screens' in Times Square

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has denied suggestions that it's putting facial recognition cameras in the subway, saying that a trick designed to scare fare-dodgers was misinterpreted. From a report: 'There is no capability to recognize or identify individuals and absolutely no plan' to do so with NYC subway cameras, says MTA spokesperson Maxwell Young. Young was responding to a photo taken in the Times Square subway station by New York Times analyst Alice Fung, which shows a prominently placed monitor with the words 'RECORDING IN PROGRESS' and 'Please Pay Your Fare' superimposed on a video feed. 'Hey @MTA, who are you sharing the recordings with?' Fung asked. The monitor featured the name Wisenet, a security company that prominently advertises facial recognition capabilities, and the video feed traced squares around subjects' faces.

Young says that the recordings aren't being monitored to identify individuals in the footage, though. 'There is absolutely no facial recognition component to these cameras, no facial recognition software, or anything else that could be used to automatically identify people in any way, and we have no plans to add facial recognition software to these cameras in the future,' he tells The Verge. 'These cameras are purely for the purpose of deterring fare evasion -- if you see yourself on a monitor, you're less likely to evade the fare.'

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