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Fans are subjected to intrusive biometric surveillance technology at stadiums worldwide, including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The upcoming 2022 World Cup, which is anticipated to draw more than 1 million soccer fans worldwide, will be seen by more than 15,000 cameras placed in eight stadiums and on the streets of Doha.
“What you see here is the future of stadium operations,” the chief IT officer for the organisers, Niyas Abdulrahiman, told AFP in August, “A new standard, a new trend in venue operations, this is our contribution from Qatar to the world of sport.”
The World Cup organisers in Qatar are not the only ones using biometric technology to track soccer fan behaviour. These security and monitoring technologies have recently been implemented at soccer stadiums and clubs all around Europe. Since 2019, Brøndby Stadium in Denmark has used face recognition to validate tickets.
In 2017, the system was removed after a court judgment, only to be reintroduced earlier this year after facial scanning technology misidentified almost 2,000 spectators at the Champions League final in Cardiff, UK, as potential criminals.
As “health securitisation” is integrated into systems for public safety and marketing, ubiquitous biometric technology systems have evolved to constitute a new norm for stadium infrastructure.
Brett Hutchins, a media professor at Australia’s Monash University and co-author of a study on sports stadiums and the normalisation of biometric monitoring, stated, “These elements represent three interlinked use cases for stadium surveillance technologies, which are used interchangeably and sometimes simultaneously.”
The US Biden administration has proposed an AI Bill of Rights, which many believe needs teeth because it does not forbid the most contentious uses of AI, such as the widespread use of face recognition for surveillance.
According to recent reports, everyone visiting Qatar for the World Cup would reportedly be required to download two applications, which, in the opinion of experts, practically hand up all the data on your phone.
Furthermore, biometric surveillance technology is not always accurate. Inaccurate matches can lead to wrongful identification and potential targeting of innocent individuals.
It is essential for fans to be aware of the implications of biometric surveillance at stadiums and to advocate for alternative, privacy-respecting security measures.
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