New spying app developed by VenueNext will track your every movement during a concert or sporting event
Levi's Stadium in California is home to the first mobile app called 'Levis' Stadium ' designed to enhance every aspect of a fan's stadium experience, from steering fans to their parking spots to identifying the least-crowded restrooms. No more waiting in line for a $10 beer and $6 hot dog. During the game, fans can order food and drinks that can be delivered directly to their seats or picked up at express windows. Don't agree with that call? Use the app to watch instant replays from four camera angles.
Want to bet there's more than four camera angles of your face? Good luck trying to access those cameras.
What's worrisome is another privately owned company is making a profit off of spying on your families every move and marketing it as a convenience. No more looking for a parking spot, we know where you are and we know who you are, trust us!
Where have we heard that before? Anyone?
Nearly 30% of the fans used the app during the game, and the stadium filled 2,100 in-seat delivery orders, nearly triple the number filled during the last preseason game in August. And while these early adoption numbers are exciting for the team, VenueNext may have the most to gain by a successful season at Levi’s.
The app and in-stadium technology isn’t complete. Paul said they still want to add social media elements, where fan posts and photos may be integrated, and even a feature that allows users to find friends who are also at the stadium and meet up. Perfecting the food delivery and ordering process will also improve over time, he said; it’s a matter of supply and demand, and that balance takes time to understand.
The personal analysis mirrors what Google, Facebook and thousands of other mobile apps have been capitalizing on for years. Such surveillance doesn't bother 49er season-ticket holder Ron Johnson of San Francisco — as long as the app delivers on its promise to learn what he likes.
"I would much rather that they have some idea of what I want to buy so they can put that stuff front and center for me, as opposed to showing me things that I would never purchase," Johnson says.
Levi's Stadium is now a massive surveillance laboratory that can test technology's ability to change the way large crowds experience athletic events, concerts and possibly even political conventions. If 49ers' CEO Jed York's vision pans out, venues across the U.S. will spy on fans smartphones.
"We think this is going to be the forebear of everything else that comes to stadiums," says York.
It's definitely a forebear of the dangerous corporate run surveillance state:
DHS/TSA searches you and your car while you enjoy the game. DHS's national facial recognition identifies you in a crowd and stores your biometrics. Now private stadium owners, DHS/police will know when you get up and go to the bathroom!
America's corporate run surveillance state is worse than you can imagine, police want you to pay them so they can spy on you in your home.
Police in Louisiana are urging residents to add surveillance camera security systems to their homes and then to hand over control of those systems to law enforcement, an effort they claim will help make neighborhoods safer.
The team actually helped create VenueNext, funding its start through Aurum Partners LLC, the investment firm of the team’s ownership. VenueNext is led by COO and founder John Paul.
The app and its underlying technology were developed by VenueNext, a startup backed by a venture capital fund financed by York and other members of 49ers' management team. York declined to disclose how much money has been invested in VenueNext, but the 49ers so far have spent about $125 million on the stadium's technology, including a Wi-Fi network capable of keeping up to 70,000 fans online so their movements and desires can be tracked.
Other sports teams and concert promoters do offer apps to make their events more convenient and enjoyable. Typically though, those services have been offered in piecemeal fashion: Fans might need one app to order food and another to find their way around.
VenueNext is hoping to license its single-app system to other stadiums and arenas. The Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings already have expressed interest as they build new stadiums, says Paul. VenueNext's system could be useful at convention centers and "wherever you have got a lot of people congregated together for a major event," says longtime technology analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies.
Don't be surprised if the next venue you attend has a disclaimer legal agreement that says you accept the risks of being spied on everywhere from the moment you step foot on their property and your image will be sent to DHS/police the NSA & FBI.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/de7ed05c4f6644acabb5899895ac01f3/can-football-stadium-be-smart-phone
http://recode.net/2014/09/18/venuenext-startup-behind-niners-new-stadium-app-eyes-more-teams/