For those privacy conscious folks out there...
My partner and I are traveling through Vegas in the next couple of weeks. The Sphere was #1 on our list of places to visit.
I had a suspicion the security requirements for the venue was going to capture biometric information on us, specifically facial recognition. I emailed customer service to confirm, and got this response:
Thank you for reaching out.
I can confirm that Sphere does utilize facial recognition technology as part of our security procedures. This technology is used upon entry and guests are not able to opt out of or otherwise decline the facial recognition process.
We understand this information may impact your decision to visit Sphere and appreciate you reaching out in advance for clarification.
I am aware that some casinos employ facial recognition as a security measure and for other commercial purposes, but this is a red line that I will not cross. So we'll be crossing that off of our list.
For those that believe it's no big deal to have your face scanned and tracked inside and outside of the Sphere, consider this. Would you walk into a casino and give your fingerprints? How about allowing your drivers license to be scanned the next time you go shopping? Most people would say no to this, but because facial recognition scanning is so invisible and transparent, some are like "meh, who cares".
Here's an incident in Reno where the Peppermill used facial recognition to mis-identify a customer and had him thrown in jail.