Video Screen In Subway Station Not Spying On You, MTA Says

NEW YORK — Some straphangers encountered an unusual sight near the turnstile at a Manhattan subway station last week: A surveillance camera showing what it captured on a flat video screen.

A photo of the gadget posted to Twitter on Thursday sparked concerns that facial recognition technology had invaded the subways. But the MTA says the camera is only meant to spook fare-beaters.

"There is absolutely no facial recognition component to these cameras, no facial recognition software, or anything else that could be used to automatically identify people in any way, and we have no plans to add facial recognition software to these cameras in the future," Max Young, the MTA's chief external affairs officer, said in a statement.

The screen apparently caught the attention of Alice Fung, a governance analyst at The New York Times who tweeted the photo of it. It appears to hang in the 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal stop near Times Square.

The screen bears an image of commuters coming through the turnstile with the words "Recording in Progress" at the top and "Please-pay-your-fare" across the bottom. Small squares appeared around riders' faces on the screen.

The image drew swift condemnation from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a privacy advocacy group, which called on the MTA to reveal how the technology was being used and whether the data was being shared. The Verge first reported on the concerns about the camera.

"Some facial recognition algorithms work well, but others are broken and biased," Albert Fox Cahn, the project's executive director, said in a statement. "The MTA must tell us ... how it’s analyzing our faces and how they know those systems work."

But Young said the camera can't actually identify people, though it can sense motion and detect when there is a person on the screen just as many security cameras can.

"These cameras are purely for the purpose of deterring fare evasion — if you see yourself on a monitor, you’re less likely to evade the fare," Young said.

The MTA has reportedly tried facial recognition before, albeit unsuccessfully. An effort to spot drivers crossing the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge last year failed to recognize any faces properly, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

But the agency has not given up on surveillance. New York City Transit President Andy Byford wants to install cameras at 50 additional subway stations to help with fare evasion enforcement.