While you’re watching the World Cup, the feeds may be watching you

It’s a big year in America. It is the semiquincentennial, also known as America250, and the United States is preparing for the World Cup. But the viewers of these events – and the millions of people who live in the cities in which they live – may not realize that they, too, are being watched.

From Kansas City to New York, US World Cup host cities have been ramping up their management skills in the months leading up to the tournament. Security measures are very high in Washington, DC, which is not hosting the World Cupbut it is the home of a list of observations this summer. The Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital will have an unprecedented dimension. Law enforcement agencies say they won’t take any risks for the once-in-a-lifetime event — but privacy advocates warn that some of the surveillance isn’t just for this summer’s festivities.

Fourth of July fireworks on the National Mall and the July 19th World Cup final in New Jersey were selected. National Security Special Events (NSSE) is the Department of National Security, the strongest security designation the organization provides. This is unusual for major sporting events – the Super Bowl is always named after the NSSE – but it is a first for the Fourth of July. The UFC fights at the White House in June was also NSSE, as was the UFC watch party on the Ellipse.

Attendees of the Fourth of July parade on the National Mall will go through airport security and will not be allowed to bring folding chairs or coolers. Anti-drone measures will be implemented, The Washington Post reportsas well as they will bomb technicians, accountants, and medical workers from several government agencies. While attendees will see these security measures, others may be near invisible – including cameras that track their biometrics.

The incident on the National Mall appeared to be in response to criticism of the security posture at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which it was. he was entered by a gunman who allegedly shot at a Secret Service agent.

There will also be similar measurements for the World Cup final, which Donald Trump is expected to attend – and where he will do so give the cup to the winning team.

“This will be a safety-o-rama even if the president is gone,” said Jules Boykoff, author Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machinehe said Seaside. “When the president is gone, that’s extra security.”

Boykoff, a professor of political science at Pacific University, said there could be an increase in ICE at the end of the World Cup, and he said that ICE Rapper 21 Savage was arrested at the 2019 Super Bowl – another NSSE – saying he overstayed his visa.

Anne Toomey McKenna, an attorney specializing in privacy and biometric surveillance, said the NSSE announcement could also make it easier to justify collecting communications data under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, rather than under the Wiretap Act’s requirements.

Andrew Giuliani, the head of the White House’s World Cup team – and Rudy Giuliani’s son – has said there will be full security at all World Cup games, even the ones Trump doesn’t attend. “You’re going to have multiple checks from security. You’re going to have checks when you get on the tracks to make sure you’re fit,” Giuliani. he said Frederick Kempe of the Atlantic Council. “Football fans – or from running fans – they tend to come to the stadiums late, 15, 20 or more minutes before the game. But Giuliani said ticket holders should be aware that gates open three hours before the game and plan to arrive early to avoid missing out.

Monitoring is not only automatic but also involves the production of large equipment in the country. Through FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security provided $250 million in funding to countries participating in the World Cup, most of which was used to purchase anti-aircraft equipment. According to The New York Times. The FBI has also been training local law enforcement agencies about drone mitigation. According to Giuliani, Fan Fests in all 11 host cities will be covered by anti-drone technology. It is unclear whether these cities are using the same technology caused the plane to be grounded in El Paso earlier this year.

New York City – technically one of the host cities, even though the match is taking place across the river in New Jersey – spent $6.5 million on technology. In Kansas City, Missouri, authorities have confiscated at least 16 drones since the World Cup began.

“The biggest rule of thumb for the World Cup and the Olympics is that local and national police use the game as their money-making machine,” Boykoff said. “The World Cup creates a crisis that allows for all kinds of security measures.” And most of the time, once these tools are fixed, they stay. Paris, for example, has enabled AI video management ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games – and they are keeping it in its place until the end of 2027 despite privacy concerns.

Similar cameras were installed in the US before the World Cup, even in places beyond the stadiums. Kansas City has also installed facial recognition cameras on some city buses, although the state has declined to fund the project due to privacy concerns. The city continued with the program, saying it would help identify missing persons and could prevent human trafficking at a major international event. City officials said the photos taken are cross-checked with missing persons information and stored if there is a match.

“Privacy is always a problem,” said Tyler Means, director of transportation and infrastructure at the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. he said The Washington Post. “We always have cameras on our buses, it’s new technology, I think over time it will be better and people will realize, ‘It wasn’t really different.'”

The cameras aren’t working yet due to delays and technical delays, but Kansas City plans to roll out the app later this year — even after the World Cup is over.

The America250 celebrations will be monitored by thousands of law enforcement officers, including National Guard soldiers and FBI agents, many of whom will be wearing body cameras. Several cities have expanded or upgraded their CCTV systems ahead of the World Cup. Seattle he says they also installed surveillance cameras after FBI and Seattle police officials told the mayor about “horror” incidents at the game.

McKenna said the increase in surveillance in these cases is not justified due to the level of risk, but said there is a problem with the way biometric data is collected and stored. McKenna pointed out that British Columbia, which is also hosting the World Cup, has it laws depending on how long viewing matches and other events can be saved – US law does not.

Although CCTV has been around for decades, advances in camera technology – and the integration of AI – have made these systems more advanced. The first footage “told us a lot about what was going on, but it wasn’t any different than what a police officer would see for themselves,” McKenna said. “That’s how the law in the US has come to say that CCTV is okay – because it takes place in a public place, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy protection under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

But cameras reach farther than ever before—they can tilt, pan, or zoom, and can often see much farther. They can be equipped with thermal imaging devices and facial recognition technology, all of which are accessible to law enforcement. Some AI software can also analyze human facial expressions and claim to predict human behavior, McKenna said.

“We’re advancing AI systems with analytical capabilities that can integrate data and identify things from images that we didn’t know about,” McKenna said. “Traffic officers cannot identify every person who passes by, but facial recognition technology is very common, and can be used in conjunction with images being taken and collected by CCTV systems.”

All these can be sent to Federal fusion centerswhere information is shared between the government and federal agencies such as ICE and the FBI. McKenna explained that when information is shared between local law enforcement and state law enforcement agencies, “we lose control over how that information is used.”

“This is part of the protections we are required to have under our laws – that information collected for national security purposes cannot be used for law enforcement purposes,” McKenna said. “We’ve seen more and more national security measures become part of domestic law enforcement.”

The World Cup is just a few weeks away. But there’s no telling how long all the analytics collected around matches will be stored, or how they’ll be used.