Taylor Swift’s concert at the Rose Bowl in California earlier this year was monitored by a facial recognition system, designed to filter out and bar entry to her many stalkers, it has been revealed.

According to Rolling Stone, which spoke to a concert security expert who worked with the system for the gig back in May, the facial recognition software was built into a kiosk that was displaying recorded highlights of Swift’s rehearsals.

Attendees who looked at the kiosk were secretly scanned by the software, with the data being relayed to a centre in Nashville, Tennessee that matched the hundreds of images with a database of known stalkers that ranges into the hundreds.

Taylor SwiftTaylor Swift used facial recognition technology at her California gig this year

“Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working,” said Mike Downing, who attended the concert to witness a demonstration of the system as a guest of the company that manufactures the kiosks, Oak View Group.

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Representatives for the 29 year old star haven’t commented on the use of the tech.

However, Swift is one of the most high-profile celebs in the world, and that, as she knows all too well, comes with its attendant dangers. Just this month, one of her many stalkers was sentenced to six months in prison for breaking into her apartment to take a shower and nap back in April this year.

While this all sounds very Big Brother-esque, the legality of such software in concerts is very much with the artist. As a gig is classed as a private event, event organisers are within their rights to subject concert attendees to almost any kind of surveillance.

Such technology is increasingly being used at gigs in any event, at the entrances in order to confirm the ticketholder is who they say they are for anti-touting reasons.

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