ACLU Raises Privacy Concerns over ID Scanning

An August 23, 2011, USA Today article has highlighted privacy concerns
over how bars, restaurants and night clubs use ID scanners to track and share consumer data with other venues, including whether an individual patron “caused a problem” or “started a fight.” As the purveyor of one system
explained to journalist Trevor Hughes, the new networked scanners collect
information about patrons and “allow multiple bars in a geographic area to
alert each other about known troublemakers,” a feature already employed by
New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas establishments.

This development, however, has since spurred criticism from groups like the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which noted that the systems “come
with very few promises of security or confidentiality.” For example, as ACLU
legislative counselor Chris Calabrese observed, while Canada has placed legal
limits on the use of data gathered by ID scanners, consumer data could be
sold to marketers or insurance companies in the United States. “You no longer
control that information, and you no longer get to make decisions about how
that information gets used,” Calabrese was quoted as saying.