Your Privacy For A Drink
As a current victim of identity theft (thanks, Bank of America!) I was horrified to hear that some bars around the country are using a system that not only scans but stores information from driver's licenses. From KNSD TV:
The system called Club Scan is being used by bouncers at Bub's Dive Bar in Pacific Beach for the past two months and other locations around the county.The scanner checks to determine whether an ID is fake or real and also collects personal information that includes names, addresses and photographs.
They say the system helped them solve a rape, and it's good that it's been solved, but this method of data collection should neither be allowed nor tolerated. No drink is worth having your data sucked.
As Ben Franklin apparently put it:
Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY.
Oh yeah, and not to go all Woody Allen/Marshall McLuhan on you, but I happen to have a recent photo of Ben, seen here with my pal Clif Garboden from The Boston Phoenix. And a few old framer friends. All at the National Constitution Center in Philly.
And back to the bars...if people have an iota of sense, they'll boycott the bars using this system. Your data is only as safe as the weakest link in that system. And if you hand your driver's license over to anyone, you're just nuts.
I ran across this scanning system at a bar in Indianapolis called Landsharks. Not only were they using the system but they were only using it for the men. The women were not required to have their id scanned. It was a double whammy of discrimination and violation of privacy.
Melissa at June 27, 2008 6:27 AM
uh, triple violation. It's an explicit invitation to underage women to come and take advantage of the situation.
This is a bad idea on so many levels. It's bad enough that when I buy Sudafed I am required by law to let the bastards scan my license so the state can determine if I'm a meth fiend. When they start requiring anything beyond accurate proof of age to buy liquor, I'll distill my own.
Storing a cask of whisky is gonna be a bitch though.
brian at June 27, 2008 6:37 AM
Nondrinker but I'd say yeah head for the next place. This is far too creepy for a night's entertainment.
And I hope some guy sues for discrimination against that place, Melissa. At least take the women's too just so you don't look like you're pegging all guys as rapists. Not to mention, you know they're gonna pin the rape rap on the wrong guy because they mixed up the licenses or something.
Brian, this is why I won't buy any of those cold/allergy remedies any more. I'd rather sneeze than be tracked. I use Coricidan because I have high blood pressure but they join the others, I risk Benedryl. Works better anyway.
Donna at June 27, 2008 7:04 AM
Oooh, that would be tough on Franklin--he loved him some strong drink! But, practical guy that he was, I'm sure he'd be able to resist in the end.
Quizzical at June 27, 2008 7:05 AM
That makes about as much sense as handing over your credit card at a bar so they can run a tab for your. That'll be the day they get either my license or my credit card! BF's sister and I went out a couple Saturday nights ago, to a high end bar/restaurant in town. Went up to the bar, sat down, ordered drinks. I picked up a menu, just to look at it, the bartender says can I have your credit card? I said "what for?" he says "for the drinks" and I'm like, "no, I'm paying cash" He looked at me as if I had 3 heads. Sis and I had one drink and left. o_O
Flynne at June 27, 2008 7:43 AM
I have no problem with it. You don't have to go to bars, or to that bar. It's no different than bars with 2 drink minimums, or maximums. It's the rule at that particular establishment that you are welcome to not enter.
Now, if the government started collecting said info at every bar in teh country, that I'd have a problem with.
momof3 at June 27, 2008 10:34 AM
"Now, if the government started collecting said info at every bar in teh country, that I'd have a problem with." momof3
well, it will be so much easier, if the bars have already been collecting this info for years, wont it?
The problem with this sort of thing, is it becomes DE FACTO pretty easily. What'cha goin do when every bar uses this system? And then some saavy politician realizes that they can use said info to establish a database, see where it's going?
The problem for this is, there is no legal requirement for them to protect your info in any way. This is what squicks Amy and others of us out. They could decide to sell that info, or simply lose it. They wouldn't have to tell you, and you mightn't find out until soembody with no teeth is emptying your bank account.
At least with the Patriot Act [cursed as it be] There are some requirements for data retention, and therefore criminal liability for compromising it. That is the act that requires all the info, in order for you to get sudaphed.
Personally, I think people need to wake up to the fact that owning your information is no different than being secure in your person. Once that security is gone it is difficult to get back.
SwissArmyD at June 27, 2008 11:23 AM
NO!
USAPATRIOT is bad enough without people ascribing every boneheaded bullshit move by some government agency to collect information to it.
The law that has the pimple-faced freak behind the counter at the local druggist looking at me like a meth-head when he enters the date on my license wrong and gets a rejection message from the system is called "The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005"
It was attached to the PATRIOT reauthorization in 2005, but it would have happily passed all by itself. It is not a part of PATRIOT.
brian at June 27, 2008 1:00 PM
They say the system helped them solve a rape...
They could solve mores rapes by passing a law that says all males have to give a DNA sample when they get their Driver's License but that don't make it right.
Another example of trying to label men as rapists. Yeah they'll try to pull the wool over your eyes by tacking "possible" in front of it but this is anti-male plain and simple.
I wonder how long the San Diego bar scene would last if men just stopped going to the bars that scan ID and only go to the ones that don't...
Danny at June 27, 2008 1:26 PM
"It was attached to the PATRIOT reauthorization in 2005, but it would have happily passed all by itself. It is not a part of PATRIOT." Brian
Er, well I suppose you can split that semantic hair, and I'm sure you have your reasons for that... but since the whole shebang is authorized as:
"USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005"
Seems like the average person would call it that, wherever it came from originally.
SwissArmyD at June 28, 2008 4:09 PM
Swiss - I don't know if you've looked around at people lately, but the "average" person is a drooling moron that would suffocate if breathing wasn't automatic.
Which is what the media are counting on to get the emotional reaction they desire. It's the only way Obambi gets elected.
Would you consider economic "stimulus" (i.e. subsidies) attached to PATRIOT to be "part of the patriot act" as well? Is shoveling money to a congressman's district now evidence of the abuse of the PATRIOT act by neo-fascists?
I'm not splitting hairs. I'm demanding accuracy in representation. If words no longer mean things, then civilization is done.
brian at June 29, 2008 7:41 AM
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