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Report: 30,000 football fans unknowingly captured by facial-recognition test at Rose Bowl game

A new report has revealed more than 30,000 football fans were unknowingly captured by facial-recognition technology before this year’s Rose Bowl game in Pasadena.

Tech publication OneZero reported that there were four hidden cameras belonging to a company called VSBLTY near the Fanfest area. The cameras were scooping up data on each audience member, performing criminal background checks, and scanning their public profiles online for potential security threats, according to the report.


Many attendees at the Rose Bowl were unaware they were taking part in the test run of this surveillance system, according to OneZero.

According to VSBLTY, its “technology counted individual fans, documented both age and sex, recorded what they watched on video screens and for how long, collected 30,000 impressions, as well as the percentage of views per impression. The test also showed who watched what commercial messages, for how long, and what kind of information attracted and held interest.”

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This segment aired June 16, 2020.