Will recommending Noah Shachtman and Robert Silverman’s investigation of Madison Square Garden’s sprawling surveillance system get me barred from “The World’s Most Famous Arena”? I guess we’ll find out. Their work, based on court filings and interviews with former staffers, positions Garden CEO Jim Dolan as a disturbing trendsetter for corporate surveillance practices and highlights a few targets of the Garden’s “biometric drift net”—among them, a transgender Knicks fan, a child, and seemingly hundreds of lawyers.
After they stop working for the Garden, veterans of Dolan’s operation continue to look over their shoulders. One of us—Shachtman—spent years covering national security and never encountered people taking such elaborate steps to avoid being outed as a source. There were warnings about being tailed; an insistence to meet outside during New York’s worst winter in decades; even a brush pass, just like when spies in the movies pretend to bump into one another to plant information.
More Wired coverage of security and surveillance technology
How Citizen Surveillance Ate San Francisco
“When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry. Then came another video, and another—and the story turned inside out.”
The Out-of-Control Spread of Crowd-Control Tech
“Broken bones. Eye trauma. Brain injuries. How America’s sketchy “less-lethal” weapons industry exports its insidious brand of violence around the world.”
Opposing ICE Might Save the Country. It Could Also Ruin Your Life.
“For months, lone vibe coder Rafael Concepcion has obsessively built tools to counter the federal immigration crackdown—pivoting as he’s been outmatched. He’s also lost his job and become a target.”
