Although it wasn’t much of a financial or critical hit, Shah Rukh’s ‘Fan’ accurately showed the dark side of being a popular celebrity. In addition to that, it dug deep into the meaning of ‘fan’ (which comes from the word ‘fanatic’) to tell a cautionary tale about not going overboard with your love for a star.
However, unlike SRK’s character in the film, it’s not practically possible to go on a wild goose-chase on the rooftops of Croatia to hunt down your stalker-fan. That’s why Taylor Swift, one of the most popular pop-stars currently working in the business, has come up with a nifty technique to catch them.
According to Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift is using facial-recognition technology to locate her stalkers by making her audience watch some of her rehearsal clips.
Reports say that the hundreds of fans who attended Taylor Swift’s concert on May 18th were asked to stand at a kiosk and watch some of her rehearsal clips. And they obviously obliged to do so. However, little did they know that a facial-recognition camera was taking their images and cross-referencing it with a database of the Swift’s known stalkers.
Chief security officer of Oak View Group (an advisory board for concert venues including Madison Square Garden and the Forum in Los Angeles), Mike Downing said that,
“Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working.”
In case you’re wondering if all this made-up nonsense, then don’t. That’s because Downing has himself seen this stalker-catching system in action as a guest of the company that manufactures those kiosks.
Now you might be thinking that taking your pictures without informing you is illegal. Turns out, it’s actually not in this case because Taylor Swift’s concerts are private events. And given her history with stalkers, she has some pretty good reasons to conduct this surveillance without notifying her ticket holders.
According to The Guardian, Swift has had multiple close calls with her stalkers. Just this September, she got a restraining order against one Eric Swarbrick. Why? Because he was harassing her with letters threatening rape and murder since September 2016.
In April, Julius Sandrock was arrested outside Taylor’s Beverly Hills home, wearing a mask and carrying a knife in his car. And then in May, Mohammed Jaffar was sentenced to six months in jail and five years in probation for burglary after he appeared at Swift’s New York home five times in two months.
That said, Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, told NBC News that while Swift’s need for safety is understandable, using facial recognition tech without informing the public can be problematic.
“Stalkers are a real problem for celebrities and everybody understands it’s important for people like Taylor Swift to be safe from them. This was done in a relatively sneaky way. People should know about this, preferably before they buy their ticket.”
So, all things considered, what are your thoughts on Taylor Swift’s vetting process? Put yourself in her shoes or look at it as fan. Does it feel reasonable or unethical?