Tell The NY Mets: Steal Bases, Not Faces!

NY Mets Leadership

Cheering on the Mets at Citi Field doesn't just cost the price of an arm and a leg: It's now also stealing our faces!

This year, the Mets became the first Major League Baseball team to implement a facial recognition ticketing system they are parading around as a new high-tech "amenity" at the ballpark. In partnership with Wicket, a computer vision company, the Mets are encouraging fans to upload selfies on MLB.com to register their faces and then check-in at the Citi Field gates.

Facial recognition is not an "amenity": It's a racist form of mass surveillance that does not work in real-life situations. Facial recognition software routinely is 10 to 100 times more error-prone for Black and Asian people. Far from "high-tech," it often struggles to identify faces when people are wearing hats, an all too obvious issue for fans at Citi Field.

We don't know how Wicket is really storing and using its facial recognition data. Our faces could very well be up for sale to the highest bidder promising a home-run on corporate profits, and left vulnerable to hackers, police, and ICE.

New Yorkers will not stand for surveillance while trying to enjoy a home game. Tell the New York Mets: Steal bases, not faces!

Petition by
albert cahn
New York, New York

To: NY Mets Leadership
From: [Your Name]

I urge the New York Mets to abandon use of facial recognition ticketing at Citi Field immediately.

Facial recognition technology is biased, broken, and puts BIPOC communities at risk of false arrest and police violence. Facial recognition software routinely is 10 to 100 times more error-prone for Black and Asian people. For so-called expediency, the Mets are putting their own fans in danger of surveillance abuse and data breaches by using Wicket's facial recognition software.

The Mets must immediately drop all use of facial recognition ticketing and commit to never reintroducing such technology in the future.